Canned Companions

by Ponyess

Prologue: 1

Author's Note:

Pinkie Pie's POV

I had gotten to the store, just like most other days, nothing special or significant about it. Only this time, I found an odd, curious item on my way out. It was labeled Canned Companion. Who came up with that idea? I certainly had never heard of it, or said anything to the effect. Maybe because I couldn’t comprehend the idea of canning any of my companions. I want them fresh and out in the air, where I can make them laugh and smile at a moment’s notice.

Yet, as I saw the can on the shelf, I picked it up and read further, looking at the label. This was apparently the pink variety, whatever that means, I had never bothered reading this far. I just bounced off and paid for the groceries I had already picked up for the day. Although I did pay for the can since I couldn’t just take it without paying, or leaving it just before the counter, could I?

I know, I can do all manners of impossible things. The kind of things an Earth Pony isn’t supposed to be capable of, including the signature antics not even an Alicorn as experienced as Princess Celestia and the Draqonis discord couldn’t pull out of their hats. Yet, there are a few simple, mundane things I couldn’t do. Like stealing out of the shop, there is no fun in it. Besides, I leave the owner sad, as he, or she is bound to notice the missing items.

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Once I had paid for the items I just picked up I merrily bounced bounced home to the small room I have at the second floor of the Cakes’ building. Slipping in through the back door and leaving the groceries in the kitchen before I bounced right up the flight of stairs, only affording the framed images of my parties stray glances as I passed them. I couldn’t just pass them with any less than the passing glances, they remind me of who and what I am, affirming the smile on my face. Not that I could truly forget them, or the events they represent, I just need to see them from time to time. It is a way to pay homage to what they still do represent, both to me and the village in general.

As I slide my door to the side, I am instantly greeted by the sight of my room. Blue and yellow balloons crowding the ceiling and the pink, special once cowering under my bed that lies to the right of the door.

I continued, slowly, to the desk to the side of my bed. There I placed the can, looking quizzically at it for a moment, as if something would reveal itself, just by looking at it, silly as the notion was.

Momentarily, I turned back and closed the door behind me, before I turned back to the can, lifting it up in order to read the small print on the side of the paper covered iron can.

The pink label reads, Canned Companion. There is a large white square under the text, containing several smaller squares.

Pink is apparently Anthropomorphic, while Blue is a Centaur, Black is a Pony, Green is a Satyr, Tan is a Human. I stare at the information in an attempt to digest what it meant. I had never noticed the pother colours on the shelf, maybe I missed them, or maybe they were on other shelves, or they had only this one available at the time.

The little pink box had been marked clearly with a V, indicating a choice, as if it wasn’t obvious by the colour of the can, maybe it wasn’t, where the can had been manufactured. Who am I to say?

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In the end, I found myself with the one option, to open the can since I couldn’t just go back with it in hopes to have a refund. Technically speaking, I could go back any time, within the stipulated time period, but that is strictly technicality.

The can is easy to open, once you see how it had been intended to be opened, there is an item on the side of the can, I placed it on the spot as instructed and turned the key several times over, until the top came off, hanging from the side of the key. This means was common for cans of this type, containing any number of items that required to be stored in this fashion. I lifted the top of the can of and placed it upside-down on the top of my desk, to the side of the can, before peaking down into the semi clear gel or goo it contained.

Naturally, curiosity got the better of me. I slip my hand down and touched the fabric contained within the can, only to realise that it was warm, as if it had been alive, maybe it was.

---

As I lift my hand up and away from the can, I could clearly see the content growing pink, like the colour of my skin and conformed into a body, not too different from my very own, yet smaller and in the form the can had declared it should be.

Once the body had formed fully, she hopped out of the can, large as it was for her, even if it is just a two pint can in my hand as I picked it up at the store. Curious, I look down at the character who had just formed in my image so recently.

For a moment, I could but look at her. Just to see her in all the glory of her pinkness. From the tiny pink hooves, over the hips and tail. Then the shoulders and arms, ending in hands so small I can barely make up the diminutive hooves in place of nails she would have had, had she ben a human or satyr. Since she is based on me as an Earth Pony, she had no wings or horn. Yet, her ears perk up insistently in the jolly mood I had been known for, for so long.

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In the end, I couldn’t avoid noticing the smile all over her face as her blue eyes met mine. her mane just as tightly curled as my very own. What could I say?

“Hi, my name is Pinkie Pie and I am the Party Pony of Anthroville!” I greeted her.

“Hiya, Pinkie, call me Diana!” she responded.

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