Pinkieviduality

by Ultra-the-HedgeToaster

1.2 – Pinkie Pie makes a mess

~Pinkieviduality~

---

Chapter 1.2 – Pinkie Pie makes a mess

This chapter is available as a "synthesized" audio book:
> [link] - no background music
> [link] - with ambient music loop

> [overview of all chapters]

---

“...And this would be your wagon.”

Tight Rope turned to face the newcomer, only to find her inattentive.

The mare – Pinkie Pie, she'd said her name was, for some reason insisting that she was “the real Pinkie Pie” – had her nose stuck to the ground, sniffing out the area around a mole-hill.

“Were you even listening?”

Pinkie Pie looked up at her, and Tight did a double-take. The mare's face was dominated by a thick, bushy mustache – made of grass stalks sticking out of her nostrils.

“Fnun, fnun, fnun!” Pinkie cheered nasally.

Tight Rope burst out laughing. She had to bite down on a foreleg to stop a fit of the giggles.

This pony was perfect for the job! She hadn't made it official yet, but she couldn't afford not to hire her!

Not unless she wanted to cut down on expenses again. That thought killed the giggles instantly.

With a sigh, Tight opened the wagon-door and led Pinkie inside.

“Right now we use this one for storage, so it's all a bit of a mess.” She gestured at a variety of boxes of all sizes and shapes, then stepped aside as Pinkie leaned in to stick her head through the door-frame.

“I've got to take care of some things. You can get a start on cleaning things up a bit if you like.”

Pinkie Pie was already examining the cardboard boxes, presumably to get a sense for what needed to be organized.

Tight rubbed her neck with a hoof. “I'll be back in, ah, fifteen minutes.”

~ ~ ~

“Fun, fun, fun!” the blue pony cheered, rolling through a puddle of red. The violet pony splashed her hooves into a pool of yellow, spraying color everywhere.

Pinkie Pie was having quite a fun time, in no small part due to the contents of the wagon the green pony had showed her.

Rummaging through the boxes she'd found many shiny and silly-looking things.

But it wasn't before she'd thrown out all the uninteresting stuff that she'd made the discovery – a number of sealed buckets, each containing a gooey, colorful liquid that stuck to her hooves when she touched it.

Consequently, a previously pink, but still enthusiastic and very cheerful pony, was prancing, bouncing, and spinning pirouettes on top of one of the wagons, leaving splotches of paint with every hoof-step, every tail-wag, every bounce of her mane, and every time the bucket of paint balanced on her head spilled.

Much of the roof had remained untouched – until Pinkie noticed, that is, and she made it a game to cover each bland spot with a different color.

Deep reds and mellow greens, vibrant yellows and cool blues, mixed and swirled, patterns formed and disappeared, reshaped into new patterns, smudged and then reformed.

Pinkie laughed. It was beautiful!

With a huge grin on her lips, and buckets spilling paint in each foreleg, she danced.

Pinkie was in the middle of drawing happy smiley-faces, when she heard a sound likened to that of a strangled goose.

With a giggle and a bounce she was standing on the ground once more, face-to-face with the nice pony who had showed her around the circus wagons before. The other mare recoiled, taking a few steps back from Pinkie's face that had just filled her vision entirely.

Funny. Everypony she met seemed to always stumble away from her when she approached them. Maybe it was a form of greeting?

It was then Pinkie noticed that there was a small orange dot right on the green pony's muzzle. Apparently she truly had come face-to-face with her in the most literal meaning of the phrase.

The other mare, in the meantime, seemed to have frozen in place, staring wide-eyed at something behind Pinkie Pie. Giggling, Pinkie booped the silly pony on the nose with a blue-tinted hoof. That seemed to snap her out of it.

“Hehehe, this is so much fun!”

However, the mare's reaction was anything other than happy.

“F-fun?!” she stuttered. “W-what the bloody hayseeds are you doing?! You're – you're getting paint everywhere! You threw all our stuff out of the...! Why would you do such a...? WHAT in TARTARUS is WRONG with you!?”

Pinkie Pie took several steps back in shock, mirroring the other pony's movements from a few seconds prior.

Why was she yelling? Why was she yelling – at her?

The mare was shouting something about “respecting other ponies' property” and “recklessness”, pointing an accusing hoof straight at her.

This had never happened before. Sure, she had been around ponies shouting and yelling things – in fact, in Ponyville, a lot of ponies seemed to be shouting and yelling wherever she and the other Pinkies had went.

But never, ever ever ever and forever, had anypony shouted at her. Never before had anypony shouted at her specifically. And the angry pony was pointing at her, erasing all doubt from her mind that the target of the mare's anger could be anything other than herself.

Why was she angry with her? All she ever wanted was to have fun! Why would anypony want her not to have fun?! She just didn't understand!

-/-

Tight Rope was absolutely dumbstruck. All the supplies had been carelessly thrown out into the grass. Paint was dripping down the sides of the wagon, ruining the expensive artwork that had been crafted upon it. She'd almost stepped on a broken plate lying on the ground – and she hadn't even assessed all of the damage yet.

The utterly out-of-place declaration of “fun” was what tipped her over the edge.

How could somepony do such a thing and smile while doing it?

Tight Rope would've gone on with her thoroughly justified rant – if it wasn't for one crucial detail.

Pinkie Pie's reaction.

The mare seemed to have visibly shrunk under her stern words, staring up at her with wide, watery eyes and a quivering lip. Her entire body-language had changed. Even her mane was drooping, somehow.

The poor thing was practically on the verge of crying!

Tight was honestly at a loss for what to say. This complete emotional turn-around had probably taken less than 30 seconds. Just those 30 seconds ago she'd been filled with what she had believed was righteous fury at the pink pony's obvious act of vandalism. Surely, she couldn't honestly be – Oh sweet Celestia, now she was crying.

Without hesitation, she rushed forward to wrap Pinkie Pie in a hug, rubbing a hoof along her back and making calming shushing noises. “Hey... Hey... I'm sorry... Shhh, shhh... There, there... It's okay... It's all okay...” It wasn't so much a conscious act. It was more the instincts of both a big sister and a foal-sitter.

“B-but... You said you didn't like my fun...” Tight Rope stared blankly at the pink pony. It took her a few seconds to process the remark accordingly.

“What... exactly were you doing?”

“F-fun”, Pinkie sniffled, “with colors.”

Tight looked back at the wagon's facade. The image of a clown, a manticore and a pony in a top-hat rearing up was obfuscated by streaks of dried color running down the wagon's sides. Tight Rope grimaced.

Movement out of the corner of her eye made her return focus to the pony held tight in her fore-legs.

Pinkie Pie had tensed up, her expression apprehensive.

“You... you don't like my f-fun...” she quavered, voice hitching on the word “fun”. “B-but... but why?”

This prompted Tight's brain to instantly shift back to “big sister”-mode, and she doubled down on her embrace.

“Hey now... It's okay. I'm... sorry I exploded at you like this. I'm sure you didn't mean to... uhm.” She gestured about vaguely with a foreleg at the general carnage, momentarily struggling for words.

Pinkie took her gesture as a prompt to turn around. By all rights, the gasp that followed should have dislocated her lower jaw. Pinkie had her eyes fixed straight ahead on the smeared up image.

-/-

What Pinkie Pie saw almost broke her little pink pony heart.

The wagon she had been dancing on, spilling colors everywhere for fun, had been the wagon with the huge smiling pony-face on it. Had been. One could still see the original painting – buried under thick streaks of grim browns, cheerless grays and sickly greens.

Dirty yellows, bleak reds, and glum blues covered the pony's face. Its cheerful smile had been muted. The colors themselves had dimmed.

It finally clicked in her mind, why the green pony had been angry. This was her fault. She had broken the funny face.

Pinkie's ears flattened down at the sides of her head. “I... I didn't mean to... I...” Pinkie whimpered miserably. “I just wa-wa-wanted to have f-f-fun...”

She slumped to the ground, covering her eyes. If she didn't look, maybe this would all go away?

A warm hoof on her shoulder startled her out of her thoughts. Pinkie Pie looked up. The green pony smiled.

“I can see that now. I'm sorry I yelled at you. It was... a misunderstanding.”

“B-but the funny face...”

“The 'funny face'?” The mare tilted her head, confused. “Oh, that's what you mean. It's okay.” She looked up at the painting, then winced. “It's not... that bad. He hehe,” she laughed awkwardly. “I'll... think of something.”

Then she looked down, at a cracked plate lying in the grass, scattered nails shining in the dirt, ropes, kitchen implements, and pieces of cloth strewn all about.

“And I'll figure out how to replace the dishes... and the paint... and whatever else is broken.”

The mare heaved a heavy sigh. Body-builders would've struggled to lift it.

But then she glanced up at Pinkie Pie, and smiled.

“Heh, I guess I'll just have to subtract the cost from your first paycheck.” She winked at Pinkie.

“It... really is okay?” Pinkie Pie wiped off some of the blurriness from her eyes with a foreleg. “You don't want me to not have fun?”

“Aww, dear, why would you think that? Of course I hope you'll have fun working at the circus!”

“Really? Yay!” Pinkie Pie exploded. Metaphorically. “Fun! Funfunfunfunfun!”

All troubles forgotten, she bounced high into the air, did a victory pose, then shot down straight for the pony.

Startled, the mare took a few steps back – but alas, it was too late for her. Two colorful forelegs rushed in with deadly precision as retribution for prior acts of affection, and crushed the air from her lungs.

When Pinkie let go of her, the mare was left gasping. Giggling, Pinkie took note that the little blue boop of paint on the pony's muzzle had spread all over her face.

“Woah – gasp – you've got – huff – quite a – wheeze – grip!” she rasped breathlessly.

“Please don't hug me again...” A moment of silence on both sides. “Okay, you can hug me, but please not so tight.”

“Okay-dokey, nice pony!”

“Nice po– Oh, err, thanks? Huh. I... thought I'd already introduced myself?” She scratched her head, then shrugged. “I'm Tight Rope... I'm the director of this circus. Tell you what, I'll even help you a bit with clean up.”

The now thoroughly introduced Tight Rope began collecting the uninteresting stuff Pinkie had sorted out earlier, then paused. She gave the colorful bundle of energy a once-over.

“But before we do that, we need to get you washed up. I'm gonna get a hose.”
.
.
.

Author's Note:

Special thanks to Never2muchpinkie (aka kyuubinaruto18 on deviantArt) for proofreading, editing, and brainstorming. :-)

Comments

[Dusty the Royal Janitor]

I'm confused... wasn't there already another story with this title? Is this a reupload or just a similar title? I can't remember.

EDIT: Well, I must have been mistaken. I haven't seen this particular story before, so it must just be a similar title to something else I've seen. It's off to a nice start, though. I'll keep an eye on this.

[Reese]

Aaaaand now I have to wait for it again. Sigh. Good story so far, though. :)

[Cloud Dreamer]

Aww, I have a feeling that I'm going to like tight rope. Keep up the great work so far, liked and faved.

[Ultra-the-HedgeToaster]

5580676
I dunno, maybe you've read one of the half-dozen journals I posted over the course of the last two years of me blabbing about how I was "also working on another story off on the side"?

I sorta got tired being unable to actually send people somewhere when telling them that, so I decided to publish the "first" chapter for now and then go from there.

Other than that, if there really is another story by a similar-sounding title, I'd really hope this won't cause confusion.

I've literally had planned to use this title for over 2 years - the word itself, "Pinkieviduality", even goes back almost 3 years, though it was originally gonna have a different use - and branded just about everything that might relate to the story accordingly.

[Alex Warlorn]

Good point this is the first time anyone actually tried to DISCIPLINE the clones.

While Pinkie Pie's wake up call is a little sudden, it's all the same interesting that tight rope does how you should teach a child.

[The Random Lord]

this is perfect

[Ultra-the-HedgeToaster]

5583958 The tricky part was that Tight Rope needed to first realize how she should treat Pinkie.

Same goes for the rest of the circus staff, which is what makes the earliest chapters also the hardest to write - I needed to find (and keep) that perfect balance between "lighthearted fun" and "realistic character behavior".

In the next mini-chapter, we'll get to see another character's perfective...