Chapter 4 - Party for Four
Dissociative
By Strawberry Jelly
Chapter 4 - Party for Four
“Sorry again, Rainbow Dash,” Maud said plainly as the three mares walked side by side, “I wish the train hadn't arrived so early, so you could have spent time with Pinkie.”
Rainbow hovered above the ground at an excruciatingly slow pace so Maud could keep up with the bouncing pink mare and the stunt pegasus. She shrugged at Maud though and flew in front of her; after turning to face her she replied, “It's no big deal; Pinks and I can go pranking any day. You only get to visit like what, three times a year?”
“Four if I come home for fall as well,” Maud clarified, “Thank you though; the sentiment is not wasted.”
“It's no problem... I guess?” Rainbow replied, still not really sure how to deal with Maud's emotionless and blunt personality. “By the way Pinkie, what are you planning for the party?”
D blinked, not really sure how to respond to her friend. She really wasn't the best pony at planning parties, but she usually just followed the checklist that Pinkie kept in their journal for any big events. Not that Pinkie ever needed it, but it did help any of the others that might be stuck with party planning for the day. Except Inkie; that mare really loved to just do her own things at parties.
“It'll be a super big party as usual, silly!” D said in her most convincing voice that she could muster, and thankfully Rainbow didn't really seem to pick up on her uncertainty.
“Cool! I gotta fly real fast though; there's something I gotta pick up for... that,” Rainbow said with a wink and a nudge that D really wasn't sure about what it meant, but she nodded and pretended to understand.
“I gotcha; we'll see you later, right?” D grinned and gave her friend a wink back.
“You got it! I'll have to catch you two later,” With that, Dashie flew off into the sunset. Which wasn't really the sunset, but D imagined that it would've been cooler if it was.
“What was that about?” Maud asked, turning to face her sister with that still deadpan expression, but D could pick up on that hint of curiosity buried underneath.
“No idea!” D giggled and shrugged, “It'll be a surprise to me too!”
“What will be a surprise?” A very small voice called from behind the two mares, drawing their attention back to a thin gray mare with a darker gray mane and two deep purple eyes.
“Marble?” D stared for a moment before grinning wider than Rainbow Dash being accepted into the Wonderbolts Academy, “Marble!”
With that, the two sisters landed onto the ground as a mass of flailing limbs and a pink mare clinging all four legs around her twin with the widest grin ever, “Ohmygosh, I've missed you so much that you don't even know! It's been like a thousand... No, like five years since we've seen each other and you haven't aged a single day and you're just as pretty as ever! I think it's so unfair for you to be the prettier twin, but it doesn't really matter because I've missed you so much. I really, really am super happy to...”
Marble rolled her eyes helplessly and returned her sister's embrace as she rambled on about so many topics that were held together by the loosest and usually forgotten connections. Not that Marble was complaining; she absolutely missed Pinkie since that day that she left the farm. Sure, they send each other letters around every two weeks or so, but it wasn't the same as actually having her sister embrace her.
“I missed you too, Pinkie,” Marble replied after a good five minutes of Pinkie's rambling that she probably hadn't taken a single breath for. If that was even possible, but Marble knew better than to doubt her sister's bizarre abilities.
“She's coming back,” Maud smirked ever so slightly at that thought. As usual, Pinkie proved to make her so expressive with her emotions; even to the point that she almost let out a soft laugh. Almost.
“Do you two know what this means?!” Pinkie stood up and scooped both of her sisters into a group hug; despite the fact that Maud had easily been five feet away just a moment before, “I'm going to throw a double party!”
“Until Limestone arrives,” Marble clarified.
“Oh my gosh!” Pinkie's eyes widened and her pupils took over the blue of her eyes, “Girls; we haven't had a triple party since that day back on the rock farm. The day that it was mine and Marble's birthday and Limestone got accepted into McRockstein's School of Rock Farmers! Do you two know what this means?!”
“No.” Maud said flatly, but her building excitement was practically oozing from every part of her body.
“What?” Marble asked with a shy, but excited smile.
“We're going to not only have a cake, but we're going to make the Shattered Igneous, Snowcream, Confetti, and Geode Cake Supreme!” Pinkie squealed at the very idea, pulling her sister's cheeks to her own, “Not only that, but we're going to have a rock pinata!”
Marble only giggled and hugged her sisters in return, “Does that mean I'm going to have to go rock foraging?”
“You know it!” Pinkie nodded eagerly, “Girls, this party is going to be the most extreme party that I've ever thrown in Ponyville. Now the big question is if I should invite everypony or just our super duper close friends?”
“I'm okay with just close friends,” Marble's brow twitched as a nervous smile made its way onto her face. She really didn't care for being in large crowds or the center of attention for that matter, so maybe a party with less ponies would help keep her from panicking. Even after all of these years, she was still prone to anxiety attacks.
“I'm not really a pony-pony,” Maud agreed, shaking her head at the idea.
“Great! Then we'll just invite Twilight and them!” Pinkie dropped her sisters at her sides and nodded her head, throwing a clipboard and a pen into the air from her mane. Upon catching both flawlessly in her hooves, she spoke yet again, “Alright, so I'll need your two's help with collecting supplies.”
“Wait, uhm... C-Can I bring somepony too?” Marble quietly interrupted her sister before she had the chance to go into 'super serious party mode'.
“Well, yeah! Who did you wanna bring?” Pinkie grinned widely in both shock and complete bliss. Her twin was always so anti-social and quiet that she hardly ever made any friends; so hearing her actually opt to bring someone herself was like a gift from the divines themselves.
“Her.” Marble pointed a hoof over at the very light amber mare that stood about four feet away, hiding behind her curled cyan mane with an uneasy smile on her face before her eyes widened in shock.
“Wait, it's you!” Coco's shyness almost instantly melted as she ran over to the party pony, showing her a wide grin in excitement.
“Oh my gosh it's you too!” Pinkie's smile somehow widened, although she had absolutely no idea who this mare was. There was a weird sense of deja vu, but it still nagged at her uneasily. She never forgot a face once she had seen it, so why was it so hard for her this time around?
“You know each other?” Marble looked between the two in a bit of disbelief.
“We met a while back in Manehattan during fashion week. She was one of the mares that helped me finally dump Suri onto her head,” Coco clarified to her friend with that excited smile still sitting on her face.
“That was an adventure!” Pinkie giggled again, just hoping that her act wasn't going to be picked up on.
“By the way, Coco, do you want to help me out with getting ingredient for the cake, or would you like to head back to the hotel?” Marble smiled gently and hugged the mare with a single leg.
“I think I'll go back to the hotel and get everything unpacked for us,” Coco hugged the mare back and gave her a soft nuzzle, “Will you come get me later for the party?”
“Of course,” Marble agreed and nuzzled her back before Coco trotted off with a wave.
“I'll see you and the others at the party later, right?”
Pinkie nodded, “You know it!”
After watching the strange cyan maned mare walk off, Maud finally said what was on her mind in that flat tone as usual, “You two seem close.”
Marble's cheeks flushed a soft red, “Maybe a little... We met through my agent's wife. She's a pretty big fashion critic back in Manehattan that introduced us. We kind of spent time together, and then became roommates.”
“Just roommates?” Maud asked with what was probably meant to be in a teasing tone, but had came out flat as ever.
“Oh my gosh, really?” Pinkie tackled Marble into another tight hug and squeezed her as tightly as she could, “A special somepony?!”
“Subtle.” Maud replied on behalf of her sister that's cheeks had become almost pink enough to match her twin.
“Do you know what this means?” Pinkie giggled, “We're going to have to throw another party for you two!”
Marble's eyes widened in horror at the idea of being the complete center of attention and she shook her head, “No, no, no, no, no! L-Let's just let this be the only party this week.”
“But-” Pinkie was cut off by her sister shaking her head adamantly, “Fine, but I'll still make you two a cake at least.”
Marble only smiled at her sister and nodded. Stopping Pinkie from throwing a party was like using oil to dowse a fire; it almost never works out; so when it comes to victories with the party pony, you had to take what you could get. Already though, she knew that this party was going to be a hectic thing to put together though; Shattered Igneous, Snowcream, Confetti, and Geode Cake Supreme is one of the most difficult and time consuming endeavors that one could have in the kitchen; it had only been successfully made one time in their life and it took Maud, Marble, Limestone, and Pinkie to complete the monstrosity.
"We better get started if we're going to finish he cake by the party tonight." Maud said matter-of-factly, to which both mares nodded in agreement.
"Alright girls, so here's the jobs I need you two to do!" Pinkie showed them the checklist and began to assign tasks.
And that's how Marble found herself outside of Ponyville in the Diamond Dog fields, searching the ground for geodes. It wasn't something that she had to do for years now, but muscle memory alone proved to work as she dug through the ground with her hooves, wearing the two special horseshoes that they used to use for such chores around the house so many years ago.
“Why didn't she give Maud this job?”
Unbeknownst to her though, Maud was spending her own time climbing into a volcano to collect the 'freshest' igneous rocks that Equestria had to offer.
~~~
Octavia let out a soft sigh as she trotted back to her apartment, carrying the saddlebags that she refused Gray Mane access to. Not that she wasn't paying him to perform such manual labor, but the bags were carrying something special that she had for her sister to offer as both an apology and maybe as a way to cheer her up. After all, the main reason she had come to Ponyville was because Pinkie Pie was upset, and as her older sister she knew better than to just let Pinkie brood over something for too long.
She smiled and pulled out her key between her teeth and stabbed it into the door lock. It took her a few minutes to actually convince Gray Mane that she would be okay in her own room. He said he worried about her, but she honestly knew how Gray Mane felt about her. He was just wanting to be a little closer to her than she was okay with; not after what had happened on the rock farm.
“You.” The clattering of keys falling to the floor was heard following up the voice. Octavia turned her head to see a gray mare with a pale off-white mane and two brown eyes and an expression of complete shock on her face. Limestone's eyes widened as she looked over the mare and bit her lip as if to say something.
After a minute of the awkward silence, she finally spoke up, “Sorry, you just reminded me of somepony.”
Octavia's gut wrenched at the very sight of the mare and quickly threw out a random accent into her voice, “I understand darling, I get that a lot.”
She mentally kicked herself in the head for using a Braytish accent, but the gray mare seemed to buy it as she apologized and entered her room. Octavia on the other hand was taking a deep panicked breath from recognizing her youngest sister. Thankfully Octavia wore her mane in a different style now and she truly looked a lot different than what she had the last time they met. Urgently though, she entered the room next to her and locked it with utmost haste in case the mare in the next room decided just who she really was.
The hotel room was bland, only having a single bed, dresser, nightstand, lamp, and a handful of books. Octavia found herself almost immediately crashing onto the bed as she let out a long and helpless whimper as the memories came unwelcomely rushing back into her head. All of those years ago, it had been all of her fault. If she had never let him into the house then... Then...
“Madame, I wanted to inform you that I had ordered lunch for you,” A voice called from the other side of the door, causing Octavia to lift her head from the wet pillow. She honestly hadn't realized that she was even crying to begin with, but she wiped her eyes quickly before calling back out.
“Thank you, Gray Mane,” She took a shaky breath and forced a smile, “I'm just... unpacking. I'll be out in a moment.”
“Of course, Madame...” He replied with a wry frown forming on his lips. He knew something was terribly wrong with Octavia and he wanted nothing more than to just open the door comfort her, but he knew better than that. She was always so distant and cold about her personal problems; a fact that he had learned the hard way a few months back where he was almost fired from it. No, not just fired, but he was almost banished from her life as both a friend and an employee.
“Of course...”
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So, Pinkamena is obviously like this.
And Pinkie is like this.
Surprise is like this.
And D is like this.
Does that make Inkie like this
or this
Sorry, it's late at night, so my post may be a little loopy.
Seriously though, I like this story a lot. I think it's clever, especially since most fics I've read involving multiple personalities for Pinkie include only 2 (Pinkie and either Surprise or Pinkamena) and this seems like a much more interesting setup.
I do wish it would focus back in on Pinkie though. The family dynamic is interesting, but I'm much more interested in the different sides of Pinkie and how they function.
Nice story so far but what's going on with twilight?
Well, setting things up is necessary, I don't mind. Especially not when you update about 2500% faster than any other person I'm currently following on this site. Also, D seems absolutely adorable.
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Inkie's actually a little different, but that's for another time to explain :P
The thing with DiD though is that it's actually a little uncommon for someone to only have two personalities (they usually only know of one other though, if they know of any at all).
I do admit that the story does have quite a few plots running though it, but they all are really tied together, I assure you.
That being said though, I think I may need to start making the chapters longer in order to fit in the different parts of the story and show each aspect equal love.
Even if it is filler, it's okay to not make all the time in a fanfic an exposition. I mean, characters [are supposed to] have lives, so it makes sense that there is some time being spent on something that is slowly forwarding the plot by adding "background detail".
This is why I liked Pulp Fiction. The characters talked.
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I don't have any problem with exposition. I just want more exposition about the alters, and less about the family. At least for the moment.
That's just me though. And Octavia's comment towards the end that "If she had never let him into the house then..." is certainly intriguing.
Maud Pie: Action Hero
Is Gray mane a reference to Gray Mann from Tf2?
Adam: By the Power of Graysweet!
He-Cake: I have the sugar!
It has a yuri shipping? Oh, well, not my cup of tea, really. In fact, I'm not actually a big fan of homosexuality... but I guess I don't mind it that much if it doesn't detract away from the story too much, if at all. The story is still interesting, and is still a very good read. Gives me some ideas for some story ideas I have.
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Gotta agree somewhat
Some stories do get sidetracked because of the shipping
Anoying AF