~Pinkieviduality~
Chapter 2 – The First Night Ever!
This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book:
> [link] - no background music
> [link] - with ambient music loop
It had been some very eventful hours of play, food, and running around the circus, when Pinkie Pie noticed that the blue of the sky had turned into orange.
“Hold on a second, I didn't hit the sky when I was playing with those color-buckets...” Pinkie scratched her head in confusion. Then she gasped, noticing the pink of her hoof had taken on an orange tint as well.
And so had the grass, and the flowers, and the trees, and the circus-wagons, and even the griffon who had just walked out of one of the wagons.
His shiny white-gray-ish feathers were now aglow in a yellowy-red hue, that changed depending on what way she tilted her head.
It looked fun! She had to investigate!
“Oooh”-ing and “aaah”-ing, Pinkie squinted her eyes at the feathers, stretching her neck, turning her head this way and that, pushing her face closer, backing up again, then burying her face in the feathers once more. And they were so soft, too!
Mister Big Bird-Cat – Geoffy? Yeah, Geoffy – had went all stiff and stock-still when she'd run over, and now he was making all sorts of quiet funny squeaky noises. He was such a silly bird-kitty!
One of the feathers got up her nose.
It tickled.
Pinkie Pie instantly fell, rolling around in the grass, laughing uncontrollably. With every small movement, the soft feather kept tickling the inside of her nose, robbing her of any ability or thought to remove it.
And why should she? It was fun!
And so Pinkie simply kept on rolling, letting the world pass by in streaks of sky-orange and grass-green.
“Wheeeeeeeeeeee!”
Right up until she rolled into the lake.
There was a splash, and then Pinkie Pie found herself in a place where tiny fish swam all around her, where algae tickled her belly, where she felt almost weightless, where her mane and tail ebbed and flowed like they were made of cloud-stuff, and where giggling made pretty bubbles come out of her mouth that flew up into the sky.
Pinkie played. She swam, she dived, she sat down on the lake-bed to look at the sky, she shot out of the water only to dive-bomb back in, she followed the fishies and tried to catch them with her hooves, she splashed and watched the light of the sun ripple around her.
Pinkie Pie had fun.
Eventually, the watery-fun ended, and Pinkie shook out her coat and mane.
The sky was now a kind-of blueish dark, and so was the ground. Her hooves were dark, too. Pretty much everything was colored in different shades of “dark”.
Pinkie Pie trotted out of the water, towards the circus-wagons, somehow not feeling like bouncing at the moment.
She looked up at the new glowy ball in the sky and waved at it. She almost fell over doing so, but caught herself just in time.
“That's the moon,” her brain provided after some time. Pinkie snickered to herself.
“Hehe... Moo... Moon. Moo-moon. Moooon. Hihihi...”
For some reason, lifting her hooves and placing one in front of the other in the right order was difficult. Each of them seemed to weigh a ton, and the ground and the bushes and the wagons and the sky and the everything seemed to be wobbling and tilting ever so slightly.
Pinkie looked up again at the moon.
“Hihi, that must've been a really big cow who did that.”
The upper half of the moon was gone. So was the upper half of the sky. And when she looked down, so was the upper half of the everything.
Pinkie tried to open her eyes properly, but her eyelids had suddenly become too heavy to lift.
“Wanna find the cow,” she mumbled out loud as she clumsily stumbled forward. Her voice sounded slurred and silly to herself. It sounded funny – but instead of a giggle, all that came out next was an odd sound that forced her mouth to open wide, unable to close it for several seconds. Out of a reflex, she raised a hoof to cover her mouth – then the everything fell over, and she suddenly lay on the grass.
Pinkie didn't try to stand up again. Right now, just laying down on the warm, slightly prickly grass was... fun.
Then she began snoring.
~~~
“Good morning, class!” A determined, stern Pinkie stood in front, gesturing at a gigantic notepad with a stick. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to retrieve the fun from the Fun-place.”
Several Pinkies walked through the crowd, handing out sheets of paper.
“These five ponies are your targets. Study the information, memorize it, then dispose of the pamphlet through the usual means.”
“Hmmmpff?” Pinkie Pie looked up, then around at the other students. Sheepishly, she leaned over to the Pinkie to her left, and whispered into her ear:
“Uh, I already ate mine. Can I have yours?”
“Sorry,” the other Pinkie whispered back. “I ate mine too.”
“Aww, shoot.” Pinkie Pie pouted. “What were those five ponies' names again?”
“Uhhhhh...” The Pinkie scratched her head. “I think their names were Flutter-bee, Rary-Flee, Raincoat Flash, Twibow Jack, and Apple-Light Twarkle.”
“Okay thanks!”
“Alright, Pinkies!” The instructor spoke up, pointing her hooves at the various groups of Pinkies around her. “You go to the Apple-place. Pinkies, you go to the Water-place. No, not that one, the other Water-place. Pinkies, you go to the Flutter-place. And Pinkies, you just run around aimlessly all over the place because I forgot where I was supposed to send you.”
And Pinkie Pie was off at a gallop!
It didn't take long at all to reach her destination.
Pinkie crested the top of the hill, and beheld infinity.
“Oh my gosh, it is full of apples!”
Apple-trees, apple-trees, and apple-trees, as far and wide as the eye could see. (Also: apple-trees)
Except for right in front of her, because there was a house, or perhaps a barn.
Many Pinkies were bouncing on the roof, others banging their hooves against the walls of the barn, making it shake.
They weren't the only ones:
A bunch of non-pink ponies were pulling on ropes attached to the barn, pitching their full weight against the stubborn wooden walls, obviously trying to tear them apart that way. Others followed the Pinkies' example, using hammers to slowly weaken the walls.
Pinkie Pie had a better idea.
Grabbing a rope that was just lying around in front of an orange pony – having to tug to get it unstuck from the pony's hooves – Pinkie used it to lasso the upper half of a tree, bringing it low to the ground.
Now easily able to get on the tree's branches, Pinkie tied the rope to hold down the tree, bouncing on it a few times experimentally to check its tension.
Then she cut the rope.
With a loud “twwaaaaang”, Pinkie Pie was flung through the air. Right at the house-barn.
“Wheeeeeeeeee!”
And with a satisfying “crunch!” and a resounding “crack!”, Pinkie slammed first through the wall, then through the support beams, flew past some pigs, and then came crashing through a window on the other side of the building, just as the entire structure came falling down.
“Woohoo!” Pinkie Pie cheered. “How many points do I get?”
She looked up into the sky, where flying ponies were keeping score. The clouds spelled out: “ALL OF THE POINTS”.
“Yay!!”
Seeing movement out of the corner of her eye, Pinkie immediately gave chase.
The pigs led Pinkie to a clearing full of animals, several pink ponies and a yellow one. Pinkie Pie arrived just in time for the yellow pony to wave a large, white-and-red checkered piece of cloth around. “Three... two... one...” She whispered to the crowd. “Go! Uhm, that is, if you don't mind... I mean if you don't want to go that's okay...”
The race was on, and Pinkie quickly found herself running alongside cats, dogs, pigs, Pinkies, and a bunny riding on the back of a flamingo.
Pinkie nimbly dodged between a tiger and a hawk, overtaking a bandicoot riding a polar bear, but was herself overtaken by a sword-wielding Pinkie riding a yellow ostrich.
Then Pinkie saw her: A fat cow balancing on a suspiciously familiar cheese-wheel was barreling her way to the lead.
“The moon-cow!” Pinkie gasped. “And she's got the moon-cheese!”
Newly motivated, Pinkie realized that she needed to up her game.
Quickly, she jumped on the back of the nearest Pinkie and instructed her ride: “Follow that cow!”
This doubled their speed, because of math.
Pinkie was going head-to-head with an ape and a green dinosaur, but then someone threw a squid in her face and she lost precious seconds navigating blind. She retaliated by crashing into the fruit-stand, and throwing banana peels at the other racers in front of her.
This cleared out the nearby competition, and Pinkie was quickly gaining on the moon-cow after a bowl of mushroom-soup that had just been lying around abandoned on a table in front of a stallion sitting at a restaurant had given her the boost she needed.
And... was that the finish line? Yes! She was so close to winning!
Faintly, Pinkie heard a strange whirring and buzzing sound. Confused, she looked up.
And then she was hit by a flying blue tortoise.
Pinkie was flung off her ride, who was sent skidding in an uncontrollable spin, until she hit a wall.
Then the other Pinkie burst into flames because that's what happens when you crash into a wall.
Thinking quickly, Pinkie Pie threw a bucket of blue paint at the flames, which solved the problem.
(It was blue paint, duh.)
After that, Pinkie lost track of the moon-cow, so she followed the closest Pinkie to where-ever she was going, presumably someplace fun.
And indeed, a very large group of Pinkies – perhaps all of them, even – had gathered around an enormous tree.
Coming closer, Pinkie saw a very very purple pony sitting on one of the branches of the tree, shouting to the crowd with a megaphone.
“Do you have what it takes to be the Real Pinkie Pie? You could win a price!”
All the Pinkies began shouting. “Me! Me! I'm the Real Pinkie Pie!” “Oooh! Oooh! Pick me! Pick me! I'm the Real Pinkie Pie!” “But – I'm the real Pinkie Pie!” “I'm the Reeeeeal Pinkie!” “Noooo, it's me!” “No, me!”
Pinkie Pie joined in on the fun, and shouting louder than all the others, she proclaimed herself the Real Pinkie Pie.
“Congratulations, Real Pinkie Pie! You win!”
“Yay!” Pinkie jumped into the air. “What did I win?”
“Pancakes!”
“Woooohoooo!”
The purple pony pointed at a plate laden with beautiful, mouthwatering, glorious heavenly pancakes!
Pinkie Pie bit down, but the plate had suddenly grown wings and was flying away at a rapid pace.
“Hey! Gimme back those pancakes!”
Quick to run after the delicious food, Pinkie dodged over, through and around bushes and brambles, thorny vines and foreboding tree-branches.
Finally, she caught up with the plate, just as she'd reached the entrance to the Water-Mirror-Cave-place.
With one slurp of her tongue, she ate all of the pancakes, licking the empty plate clean afterwards.
The black-and-white striped plate opened its eyes, giving her a fierce scowl. Pinkie shrank back at the stern face.
A striped hoof pointed at something behind her, and Pinkie Pie turned around, seeing Ponyville in the distance – and Ponyville was melting.
Pinkie gasped in shock.
Slowly, all the colorful buildings and trees and ponies and food-items were dissolving into a mess of ugly browns and dull grays. The only thing that stood out clearly from the mess were her own hoof-prints.
She looked down at her hooves, still dripping pink color.
“This is your fault.” The zebra-plate accused. “You broke the fun...”
“No!” Pinkie cried. “No no no no!! I didn't want that!”
“Don't worry,” said Tight Rope. “We can still fix this.” The green mare walked up from behind Pinkie, and gave her a smile.
She stepped closer to Ponyville, which was now somehow a painting on one of the circus-wagons, and rubbed the back of her foreleg across it several times, until all of the icky bad color was gone.
“There, all better.”
“Yay!” Pinkie Pie cheered, and Tight Rope gave her a hug.
~~~
Happily snuggling into her fluffy tail, Pinkie rolled over in her sleep with a content sigh.
Life was fun.
~~~
Geoffrey had almost finished his preparations for bed when he realized his mistake.
Earlier in the evening, Pinkie Pie's antics had completely thrown him off track, and he'd slipped a step in his daily routine.
The door of his wagon creaked slightly upon opening, as Geoffrey went out into the night. The moon was hiding behind cloud-cover, and his eyes had yet to adjust to the darkness.
Had it not been for the snoring, he'd have almost definitely stumbled over the prone form of a pony sleeping on the ground.
Geoffrey tensed when he recognized the curly mane and tail. Her hair glittered in a ray of moonlight that shined through the clouds, and Geoffrey noticed that her entire coat was soaked.
The night-air may have been pretty warm for this time of year, but regardless, she was going to catch a cold if she stayed outside all night.
What was she doing here? Why was she sleeping outside? Why did he have to be the one to find her? What should he do now?
His eyes had adjusted to the darkness, and Geoffrey caught himself glancing over his surroundings, as if the answers could be found lying in the grass, only waiting to be illuminated by the light of the moon.
As it so happened, his eyes fell on the other wagons, and he had an idea. Ask Tight Rope. She'd know what to do, as always.
Yes, that was a splendid idea. Ask her, and then he wouldn't have to deal with the odd circumstances of what the newest circus member was doing lying in the grass at night, getting a cold.
His relief, however, was only temporary. As soon as Tight Rope's wagon came into sight, he saw the flaw in his plan – no lights were to be seen through the wagon's windows, and the curtains were drawn. She was already in bed.
Geoffrey's steps grew hesitant. He didn't want to disturb her – of course not!
Tipping on the edges of his paws, he went up to the window and peaked through, only for the curtains to obstruct his sight.
He pressed an ear to the door and listened for any sign of activity – nothing.
He didn't even need to walk over to Zenya's wagon to see that she wasn't awake either. She'd already shut the blinds to keep the morning sun from waking her.
Geoffrey nervously began scratching his neck-feathers with a claw. It utterly messed up his coiffure, but it was a bad habit he just couldn't quit.
All lingering hope that the problem might've resolved itself died when he returned to the pony's impromptu sleeping accommodation.
What should he do now? Wake her up? No – no, he really didn't want to. Take her to his wagon? Heavens forbid, that would be terribly improper!
Hold on! Her wagon! But of course, why had he not thought of it earlier? Tight Rope must've already assigned a wagon to Pinkie Pie. There was really only one wagon where she could've stayed. He just needed to take her there, then he could go to bed.
For a moment, Geoffrey was unsure how to best transport the sleeping pony.
An attempt to lift her onto his back by sliding a wing under her belly elicited a sleepy mumble, and Geoffrey was afraid he was going to wake her up if he continued. She appeared to be ticklish, and applying his feathery appendage seemed detrimental.
He couldn't lift her from the side with just one claw. Maybe if he lifted her over his head with both claws at the same time... No, no that didn't work either.
Eventually, he settled for wrapping his forearms around her midsection and staying in a hover near ground-level, before making his way to the wagon.
He really hoped Pinkie Pie wouldn't wake up now.
With a relieved sigh, Geoffrey reached the wagon in question. Already carrying the pony and still balancing on his hind legs, he had to open the door with his tail.
Then he realized that the room was pitch-dark, he had all claws full and couldn't see where the bed was. On top of that, from what he could see, the room seemed positively cluttered with objects, including things lying on the ground obstructing his way in.
Granted, this wagon had served as a repository, but he'd have figured Pinkie Pie would've cleaned her room.
Geoffrey looked down at the sleeping pony held in his forearms. He couldn't effectively do anything while he was holding her, and he needed to get her to bed, but he couldn't do that because he couldn't see anything, and he couldn't get a lamp without laying her down first, which he couldn't do because he couldn't get to her bed, because he couldn't get a lamp because he was holding her.
After some more circular reasoning, Geoffrey eventually came to lay Pinkie down in front of the wagon. It was only temporarily, of course! And it was perfectly acceptable to do so, since he'd found her lying in the grass to begin with. That made it okay, right? Right? Right. Yes.
With haste, the anxious griffon rushed to his wagon, returning with an oil-lamp less than a minute thereafter.
The inside of the wagon was a mess – or rather, half of it was. It looked like somepony had started cleaning up, then given up halfway through.
As expected, the room was filled with cardboard-boxes, indexed with various descriptors ranging from “tools” to “dishes” to “photo-albums”. Less expected was that most of them lay all over the floor, some of them open. That was nothing to say of the various random items that lay in small heaps all over the place, including on the bed on the room's other end.
Geoffrey sighed.
He'd needed to clean out a passage to the bed. To do so he had needed to rearrange some of the boxes, and do something about all the random odds and ends lying about. He hadn't intended to, but it wasn't before he had actually reached the bed that he realized that he was almost done stacking the boxes thematically, re-categorizing the loose items and rectifying inefficiencies in storage management.
Another sigh, this time ending in a yawn. Pinkie Pie's bed reminded him of his own waiting for him. But he was nearly done.
A set of candles, an electrical lamp, an empty firefly-lantern and a set of matches now all went together into the appropriately re-labeled “luminescent utilities”-box, along with two used glow-stones – one never knew if you couldn't get those working again, better not throw them out.
The pop of his wing-joints when trying to stretch made Geoffrey wince. His wings had already fallen asleep, he should do so as well.
A little voice in his head began yelling at him. What was he doing here? Why was he cleaning up Pinkie Pie's room? He wanted to go to bed. He should go to bed. He had to go to bed.
“Ah, flock it.”
The rest of the various detritus swiftly went into an emptied box, clumsily labeled “unsorted objects”.
Yawning, the tired griffon dragged himself down the wagon's three steps, and then further into the night.
Now, all he had to do was to carry the sleeping pony into her bed.
Geoffrey stared blankly at the damp spot of grass. She was gone.
For a moment, he was frozen by panic. Where had she gone? What should he do?
But then, the logical part of his brain provided a simple answer, and Geoffrey relaxed. Pinkie Pie had woken up on her own, and walked off – for reasons that were none of his concerns.
Which meant she would come back and could go to bed by herself, no assistance required.
Which also meant that he could go to bed. Right now.
Geoffrey didn't take the chance for hijinks to ensue and took off immediately.
~~~
Exhausted from a long day of fun, and the general novelty of life, Pinkie Pie slept long and peaceful, unperturbed by the rays of the morning sun.
“Zzzzzzzzzzzzz... Fun... Zzzzzzz fun-fun...”
All was well with the world. Until something started tugging on her blanket.
A shiver of cold ran down her body, and Pinkie tucked her blanket close to her chest.
There was another pull, the blanket nearly slipping from her grasp.
“No... no... s'my blanky” she mumbled in her sleep. One of her hind legs twitched, as she fought off imaginary evils, firmly holding on to the warm, fuzzy blanket.
The pull stopped. Pinkie smiled, and celebrated her triumph over waking up with a long yawn.
Just to be sure, she pulled the second, leathery blanket close, tucking it tight to her chest.
With a content sigh, Pinkie snuggled deep into her fluffy pillow.
The pillow nuzzled her back, and she giggled.
The thick, slobbery tongue licking her face was what finally woke her up for good.
Reciprocating the misguided show of affection meant for a once-fledgling griffon, Pinkie licked Marianne the manticore's face right back.
“Hi!” Pinkie grinned up at the stunned, now fully-awake manticore, then turned. “Oh, hi Geoffy!”
With a grin, she expertly rolled out from under the manticore's warm paw, then bounced out of the cage to take on the world with an exclamation of “Fun!”
There were a few seconds of silence.
Then, Marianne gave a belated, very confused roar at a retreating pink pony, just as the mare energetically bounced out of sight around a corner.
Both she and Geoffrey looked at each other.
Geoffrey shrugged helplessly.
.
.
.
.