My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic: Adventures of the Book of Virtue

by ColossalGX

Pinkie Pie's Pinkie Senses are Tingling!

Author's Note:

Author's Note:
My Little Pony FIM-Hasbro

Hello, I know I haven't updated in a long time, but I had other projects to worry about among other things. If anyone is up for it, I could use a co-writer or two, or maybe I could adopt it to someone else and guide them through it in hopes of getting the chapters out. Either way, I would like to get through this faster than others are used to. So some help could be appreciated. Thank you...

It was a new morning in Ponyville, Equestria. The good part of it is, Omnifarious doesn’t have to work today. The annoying part, he couldn’t sleep in today. The thing about it is, Twilight Sparkle is busy practicing magic outside the town pavilion and needed a test subject. Her dragon Spike was usually the one on the receiving end but thanks to a certain game of rock-paper-scissors (dumb paper…) it was Omni’s turn. And here he was, standing around with a stick balanced under his hoof and leaves around his neck. He was getting bored out of his mind as he sat on his haunches like some kind of model.

“Omni; eyes over here!” Twilight's whip-like tone pulled the blue pony from his drowsy state, causing him to accidentally release a snort, “For this to work, it’s crucial we keep our concentration totally on the—“ it wasn’t that long before he zoned out again. He couldn’t help it, this has been nothing but dull on this side. But the sound of playful giggling might finally save him from this... “Omni!” a greater outburst yanked his attention back, “This magic needs our full attention to make it happen! There’s no other way!”

“Hey, look over there!” Spike pointed over to a nearby tree, where Pinkie Pie poked out of a tree from hammerspace wearing one of those colored umbrella hats. She went and darted into a bush, then into a porch, then to a rock, then to somewhere else left to the reader's imagination.

“Never mind her,” Twilight sighed impatiently, “She’s just being Pinkie Pie.”

“Super-Extra-Pinkie Pie today,” Spike scratched his head and added.

The even stranger thing happened as Pinkie poked out from between two houses; her puffy tail started rattling like a maraca, “Huh…twitchy twitch-a-twitch-a-twitch…”

“Pinkie Pie, what in the wide, wide world of Equestria are you up to?” Twilight wondered, curious as she and Spike approached her, followed by Omni who was yawning off the boredom.

“Oh, it’s my tail! It’s my tail!” Pinkie waved her tail curls in Twilight’s face, whereas Twilight pushed it away, “It’s a-twitch-a-twitchin’! And you know what that means!”

“…, Actually, Pinkie, I haven’t the slightest idea.”

“The twitchin’ means my Pinkie Sense is telling me that stuff’s gonna start falling! So better duck for cover!”

Omni looked up into the sky. There’s not a cloud in the sky so there’s no sign of rain. So unless Atlas’s sleeping on the job somewhere...

“Oh, Pinkie, it’s not gonna rain. Why, there’s barely even a cloud in the—“

WHAP!

Suddenly Omni was smacked in the face by something small, green and squishy, followed by a croak.

“He just said ‘nice catch' in Frog.” Pinkie giggled. Omni focused his gaze to see a giant from attached to his muzzle. In response to another croak he panicked and shook it off of him until the frog was nowhere in sight. Omni darted around to make sure of that.

“Oh, I’m so, so sorry,” the soft and squeaky voice of Fluttershy said from overhead, who was hovering over with an overfilled cart and bulging saddlebags all filled to the limit with croaking amphibians, one even riding shotgun on her head, “Are you okay, Omnifarious? I just couldn’t stand to see the pond getting so overpopulated, what with the frogs all hopping into each other and all, so I decided to fly as many as I can on over to Froggy Bottom Bog.”

“Uh-huh, just…” Omni waved her off, his heart still beating a few tick, “Just go do you thing…”

Fluttershy grabbed an overfilled basket of frogs in her mouth and flew off, “Bye-bye!”

“Hey, look! Froggy wants to hitch a ride too!” Pinkie pointed over Omni’s shoulder. A low croak caused him to tense up and crane his head over to see the frog sitting on his back. He panicked a bit and tried swatting it off, eventually causing him to end up chasing his tail instead.

“Would you hold still!” Twilight said impatiently, trying to aim with her magic. Soon she had to hold him in place altogether his feet dangling over nothingness. And the frog finally decided to let itself off.

“Whoa! Calm down, Omni!” Spike said as the frog landed in his hands, “You act like you never seen a frog before.”

“Come on, you guys. Let’s continue our practice session where there’s a little less commotion,” Twilight said and walked off with Spike hopped on her back and Omnifarious following.

“Wow! That was amazing!” Spike said, “Pinkie Pie predicted something would fall, and it did!”

“Oh, come on,” Twilight sighed, “She said something would fall, and a frog just happened to fall right around the same time. A coincidence. Nothing else to it.”

That moment after, Pinkie zipped back in front on a handstand with her tail throbbing again, “My tail, my tail! Twitch-a-twitch! Twitch-a-twitch! Something else is gonna fall!”

Omnifarious, not interested in Pinkie's silliness, wanted to go on ahead of the group and hope the others would follow. But suddenly he was dropped right from under where he was going. The next thing he saw was stars as he was flat on his back in a dry moat that came out of seemingly nowhere.

“Oh no! Omni fell!” Spike gasped, “Is it…safe to go help him?”

“It’s okay. My tail’s stopped twitching,” Pinkie chirped before trotting away humming.

“That was amazing!”

“Oh, please,” Twilight sighed.

“Er, Omni… Why're you hangin’ out in a ditch?” Omni barely registered that southern tone as his vision focused enough to see an orange pony in a cowboy hat looking right over him.

“Because Pinkie Pie predicted it!”

“Honestly, Spike, she did not,” Twilight refuted, “Two coincidences in a row like this may be unlikely, but it’s still easier to believe than twitchy tails that predict the future.”

Applejack let out an unnerved gasp and reared up, “Twitchy tail? Pinkie Sense?” she darted over to the nearest cart and scrambled underneath.

Spike had then hopped off his ride and went up to her, “Don’t worry, it’s safe. The prediction already came true.”

“Oh, wait. Don’t tell me you believe in this stuff too,” Twilight said.

Having just calmed her nerves, Applejack climbed out from under the cart, “I know it doesn’t make much sense, but those of us who have been in Ponyville a while have learned over time that, if Pinkie’s a-twitchin’, you better listen.”

While that went on, Omni finally managed to climb out of the trench. He almost fell back in when Pinkie popped back up from out of nowhere, “My ears are flopping, my ears are flopping!”

Spike recoiled in terror, “What does that mean?”

After a short pause Pinkie eyed Omni, “I’ll start a bath for you.”

Whereas both Spike and Applejack took a step back, Twilight just laughed the warning off, “A bath? This thing keeps on getting more ridiculous by the minute--!”

“GAH!!” Omni suddenly felt something cold and slimy splash on him from behind. It’s one of these days he wished he paid attention to traffic...

---

True to her word, Pinkie had already got the bath started by the time Twilight and Omnifarious reached the bakery. Omni was now sifting around through bubbles trying to wash every trace of mud off. He was very persistent that both Twilight and Pinkie keep at least a whole room away from him until he's done.
“So basically, it works like this,” he could barely hear Pinkie from the next room over, “I get different little niggly feelings and they mean different things. Like when my back is itchy, it means it’s my lucky day. And when my knee gets pinchy, that means something scary’s about to happen.”

“Is your knee pinchy now?” Twilight asked.

“No, but my shoulder’s achy. That means there’s an alligator in the tub.”

…Wait, did he hear that right? Sitting stiff in the tub Omni’s gaze fell to the surface of bubbles, where it had just blinked back it him?!

The way he burst out of the tub screaming must have made it across the entire top floor because someone made it to the bathroom door in record time!

“Omnifarious! Are you alright in there?!” Twilight's voice exclaimed through the door. This, he suddenly realized, became a very dangerous position standing outside the turn so he jumped back in, until the same bubbles blinked at him again and Omni jumped back out. But when the jiggle of the doorknob reached his ears he jumped back in right before Twilight burst in, “Omni! What’s wrong?!”

“Something in the tub just winked at me!” Omni exclaimed.

“Then what are you doing in there? Get out of the tub!”

“What?! No! Just get that thing out of the tub!”

“What’s all the hubbub?” Pinkie blinked after she popped in.

“Something’s in the tub! Get it out!” Omni exclaimed, panicking as he met sitting in the same tub with whatever's with him. Pinkie trotted over to the tub and dunked her head inside, fishing out something green and scaly.

Twilight gasped and jumped back seeing the small reptile being placed on the bathtub rim, “How come your knee didn’t get pinchy? That isn’t just scary, it’s downright dangerous!”

“No, it’s not, silly! This is my pet alligator Gummy. He’s got no teeth! See?” while that was going on the gator had made its way back to Omni's side. And by the time Omni could predict what happened next, that next thing happened: the gator shot over with its jaws wide open and brought a gasp out of Omnifarious as it latched onto his nose. The weird part was: there really was no teeth, just squishy gums in their place. Omni wasn’t even given time to pull the gator off it hand already snapped it’s gums into Omni’s ear, and after that his hair, “See?” Pinkie giggled watching her gator snapping all over to keep from getting caught.

“Okay, okay. I get it.”

---

After the bath, Omni walked with the two girls back to the library, Twilight still on the same topic along the way, “Well, I still don’t believe all this ‘special power'. It’s just a bunch of mumbo-jumbo.”

“What’s not to believe? You do magic. What’s the difference?”

“Acutally she does have a point…” but no matter how low Omni muttered it, Twilight heard it, and halted her path to glare nose-to-nose at him.

“No, she doesn’t! And there’s a huge difference! For one thing…” the purple unicorn went over to a crate of cleaning products near a cart and pushed them off just so she could jump on herself. She clears her throat, “…magic is something you study and practice. It only happens when you decide to do it, and it’s meant to make something specific, that you choose to happen, happen! With you, uh…it makes no sense at all!”

“That’s so not true, Twilight,” Pinkie said as they continued down the streets, “Sometimes it’s a bunch of random things happening to my body at random times that supposedly predict the future. I call ’em ‘combos’.”

“’Combos’?”

“Sure! You know, like ear flop, then knee twitch, then eye flutter? That means the sky is about to be graced with a beautiful rainbow.”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Uh-oh. I feel a combo coming on. Ear flop…eye flutter…knee twitch!” it went off step-by-step, but Twilight just threw a skeptical glance while Omni just ignored it as they made it to the library, hoping to get some sleep in and leave this little affair to them.

He would've knocked on the door but the door opened up for him; or rather the door was slammed into him with Spike coming out with a pile of books in hand. He couldn’t tell over the pain washing over, but he was flattened across its woodwork before sliding down to a groaning heap on the doorstep.

“You said that combo meant ‘beautiful rainbow’,” Twilight muttered to Pinkie.

“Oh, no, no, no, no, no. You’re thinking of an ear flop, then knee twitch, then eye flutter. This was an ear flop, then eye flutter, then knee twitch. That usually means ‘look out for opening doors’,” Pinkie jumped over to Omni, “You okay?”

Twilight sighed and shook her head, “I don’t believe this…”

“You don’t believe because you don’t understand.”

That caused an idea to pop inside Twilight's head…

And that idea lead them to the basement, where all sorts of equipment was set all over.

Twilight had Pinkie clamped behind a console wearing a helmet covered with blinking lights, “Okay. Now when you get another twitch, we’ll have all kinds of scientific information.”

“Okey-dokey-lokey!” Pinkie chirped.

“So why am I involved in this…?” grunted Omni, who was attached to a lot of wires and looking around, “I don’t have any special future-seeing powers! And where’d this stuff even come from?”

“Somehow everything that happened lately seemed to revolve specifically on you,” the purple unicorn explained, “Hopefully this will also explain the connections between that, the strange events and these ‘Pinkie Senses',” Twilight stepped back and exchanged glances between the machine and her lab rats, “Any twitches yet?”

“Nopey-dopey!”

A few more seconds later...

“Now? Anything?”

“Wait! Hold on! …Uh, no.”

“Are you kidding me? After a whole day of nonstop twitching, now that I’ve got you all hooked up, you’re not getting a single one?”

“I don’t control it. They just come and go.”

“That makes no sense!”

“Sometimes you just have to believe in things, even when you can’t figure ’em out.”

“I will not believe in anything I cannot explain.”

“Twilight, is it really that important to know this stuff?” Omni sighed, “It’s not like there’s gonna be a doomsday by just leaving it alone…”

“Omni, you don’t know what you’re saying,” Twilight groaned, “If these ponies here believe that a few tail twitches can predict the future then who knows what other silliness they would believe.”

“Wait! Hold on…” Pinkie suddenly tensed, “I’m feeling something…”

“Oh my gosh!” Twilight jumped back to the console, “What? What is it?”

The loud grumble in Pinkie's gut answered that question, “It’s my tummy! That usually means I’m hungry. Let’s eat!”

“Can someone get these wires of me then?” Omni muttered.

Twilight facefaulted with a low groan, “You know what?” she yanked out the wires off with her teeth, “Just forget it! I don’t need to know if this is real or not. I don’t need to understand it. I don’t even care!” she stormed off with Pinkie slipping out of her clamps and following.

“I didn’t think she’d learn her lesson so soon…” Omni said to himself. He pulled himself off of the wires and followed Twilight and Pinkie upstairs. But as they approach the door, Pinkie gasped and backed away.
“Uh-oh,” as Omni stopped and watched a combo from earlier swept her literally off her feet, he shuddered on the inside thinking of what that did to him and he didn’t have to memorize the signs to figure out what’s gonna happen next.

So he halted while Twilight glanced back before opening the door. However what she saw past there made her gasp and drop flat to the floor as something big and large flew over her and towards Omnifarious. The only thing that came to mind is the word ‘run’ as he made a mad dash back the way we came. But the big object was just to fast for him and he was caught in his path, rolling down the stairs in the process.

“Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry!” Spike jumped in through the door, “That giant spool just came out of nowhere! Was anypony hurt?!”

“Uh-huh…” Pinkie eyes darted over to the end of the stairs, where Omnifarious was lying under the giant wooden spool that he fell with.

“Since we did we have a giant wooden spool?!” Twilight exclaimed as he darted back down stairs and rolled the spool off of the blue pony, “And how could it had been rolling around towards the basement?!” the then shot a glare at Spike, “Did you plan this?!”

The small lizard waved his hands in defense, “No! Honest! It’s like I said, that thing suddenly burst through the outside door!”

Pinkie, concerned as the others, jumped from her space at the top of the stairs to Omni’s side, “That was a close one! We’re lucky it wasn’t a giant boulder coming down those steps! That would’ve been—“

“I better stop you right there…” Omni raised a foot to the pink pony as he stood back up, causing her to stop mid-sentence, “This…is really beginning to be a problem. How long is this supposed to keep up?”
“Sorry about all this! This goes on all day! It won’t stop until it wants to!”

“Good to hear…” Omni stumbled back up the stairs.

“But where are you going?” Twilight asked.

“To lay low until this Pinkie Sense blows over. So until then, consider Pinkie and me on a break,” he didn’t wait for Pinkie's answer and just marched out of the library to elsewhere…

---

Omni decided to spend the day at the park, where he has nothing to worry about but blue skies and green grass. He went over to the nearest bench and plopped down on his haunches, where he could be alone with his thoughts with no distractions. He thought over about his attitude towards Pinkie before e left. It might be too blunt, but he needs to steer clear of that Pinkie Sense if he wants to see tomorrow.

Unfortunately he couldn't rest. Why? Because there was something there in the park that doesn’t belong, something you don’t see in the park everyday. That bush over there was walking on its own! Seriously, it was taking a leisurely stroll around the park, stopping to smell the roses. But there was Pinkie also, seeming not to know there was even a bush behind her.

Something was up, and somehow, Omni had to be the one drawn into it. So he walked on over to the bush, probably out of its line of sight, and poked it what’s assumed to be its backside.

“Waa!” Guess Omni was right, that bush was so focused on Pinkie it didn’t know something else was sneaking up on it. He waited until the bush crashed back down to earth to examine it. Under those tiny leaves was a big pair of purple eyes.

“How ya doin'?” Omni’s casual greeting was repaid by being sucked into the bush.

“Honestly, Omni!” Twilight hissed, “Don’t you know better than to sneak up on ponies?”

“You mean, like what you’re doing?” Omni pulled back an opening in the bush showing Pinkie minding her business.

“…No!” Twilight held Omni down and peeked through the bush, “…I’m doing scientific research. I’m observing Pinkie Pie, scientific name Pinkius Pieicus, in its natural habitat.”

“Or, you can just call her ‘Pinkie Pie’ like a normal person…” Omni sighed. He tried to peek outside but Twilight held him back down.

“There’s something fishy going on with the whole twitchy prediction thing, and I’m getting to the bottom of it. So, shhh!” Twilight peeked out of the bush and spotted Pinkie hopping off somewhere, “Come on! Pinkius Pieicus is on the move!”

Omni sighed and helped Twilight walk under the bush to follow Pinkie wherever she was going…

---

Eventually they stopped at the local schoolyard, where the goofy pink pony was rolling about on the grass and humming to herself. Nothing interesting was happening, until Pinkie was scratching her nose. Twilight was watching her like a hawk, while Omni took the time for a nap.

“Omni, pay attention!” Twilight hissed, jabbing Omni with a foot and forced him to unfurl himself from his sleep, “If you look closely, maybe that'll give you a new perspective on solving this mystery,” Omni groaned and peeked through the gap just in time to see Pinkie freak out and zip across the playground hide trembling under the nearest bench, “Aha! That makes no sense!”

“Sure, just another normal day in the life of Pinkie Pie…” Omni said, “Can I go home now?”

No only couldn’t he go home, he was pulled back down in the bush with Twilight, “Don’t you see? She’s hiding like something’s about to fall from the sky, but a twitchy tail means something’s gonna fall from the sky, not an itchy nose.” Suddenly there was the sound of buzzing that became a bit of white noise for Twilight’s lecturing. He glanced through the bush and saw a fair-sized swarm of bees closing in this way… “This proves, perhaps conclusively, that—“

“Okaygreatclassdismissed! Now if you don’t mind!” Omni scrambled to his feet and dug his way out of the bush. But something holding onto his kilt kept him from going anywhere.

“Where are you going? I’m trying to teach you the value of scientific observation!”

“Observe that!” Omni pointed towards the incoming swarm, hoping she’d have the sense to get out of there with her hide intact.

“Um, right!” Twilight gulped. Luckily the situation sunk in and decided to get where the getting is good. She went one way while Omni ran the other. Eventually the swarm lost sight of the both of them; and after asking for directions they went on their way to hunt them down.

“I think I had something for this…” Omnifarious took off his mustache and sombrero, “’All barb and no brains'. That’s it,” suddenly there was a tap on his shoulder. He turned around and was met with the angry swarm of bees, “Oh great…”

---

Unfortunately a couple hundred beestings gave Omni no excuse when New Moon suddenly came up to him on his way from the hospital with a new job at Sweet Apple Acres. Having his saying no rejected, he slumped the whole way to Applejack's farm, where he happened upon Twilight leaning over a bale of hay…spying on Pinkie Pie through her binoculars.

“What are you doing?” Omni gave his fast-paced question to Twilight, who recoiled from seeing the blue pony right in front of he binoculars. The purple unicorn then yanked him behind the bale with her.
“What are you doing here?!” Twilight hissed.

“Don’t worry about what I’m doing; what are you doing still spying on people? …Hey, Spike.”

“Hey,” the dragon casually replied.

“I am not spying!” Twilight gasped, and peeked back over the bale to make sure she wasn’t sing been, ”I’m doing research. I still need more information.”

“I got attacked by a swarm of angry bees,” Omni growled, “That’s all the information I can stand.”

“That was just circumstantial evidence. No quiet down.”

“What’s she doing now?” Spike asked.

“Smelling a flower.”

“Holy guacamole!” Spike started scribbling in his notepad, “I wonder what that means!”

“Probably that the flower smells good. Wait! I’m getting something! Ear flop...eye flutter…knee twitch.”

“Wait, doesn’t that mean something…?” Omni asked, alarmed.

“Hold on,” Spike said, running off for cover, “You told me that’s the combo that says ‘watch out for opening doors'!”

Twilight laughed dismissively, “You really, really believe this stuff, don’t you? Here. Let me show you there’s nothing to be afraid of.”

“I wouldn’t do that!” Omnifarious warned.

“Omni, please,” she scoffed as she propped herself against a half-opened barn door's bottom closed half. Nothing happened, which Twilight was pleased with a smirk before she pushed off, “You see? I promise you there’s nothing to fear from that ‘Pinkie Sense’ nonsense,” she then walked off to the farm exit, “Now c'mon. We'll need more data to be sure,” Spike and an annoyed Omni followed as the unicorn, “See, circumstantial evidence and coincidences are one thing, but nothing beats simple logic and—“

Omni wasn’t sure whether or not he was glad to not hear Twilight gloating any longer, or whether or not it’s a good thing he was too annoyed to pay attention to the ground he was walking on to notice a hatch opening in front of him, which he fell in. Instead of rambling, the only thing he could process was a combined world of dizziness and bodily harm, followed by a facefull of dirt.

…Although in hindsight, he was starting to regret it.

“Omni! You came to visit mah new apple cellar! How nice!...Omni? You okay?...Uh, Omni?”

---

“Twilight, it’s not that I mind spending time with you…but I just got out of the hospital!” Omnifarious was being pushed against his will on his new wheelchair. Even though he just left the hospital he couldn’t catch a break. Instead of getting the rest he was prescribed, Twilight decided to take him right back with her on her, for lack of a better term he could think of, crusade, “Do whatever you want, but take me home first!”

“Will you please stop being paranoid!” Twilight groaned as she pushed the practically-mummified pony against her magic, with Spike close by, by the way, “Nothing’s gonna happen, I’m sure if it.”

“Wanna bet…?” Omni huffed.

“There won’t be any need; because there’s really nothing to lose.”

“You mean besides what's left of my health?”

“Look, I promise to protect you if something were to happen. Besides, you'll be the one on watch this time.”

“Wait, that’s what you put all this stuff on my chair for?!” Omni looked around at the several wires and pulleys attached o the chair, as well as Twilight's binoculars attached between his bandaged arms.

“I figured the best way to prove I’m right is that you see it for yourself,” Twilight propped Omni's chair to the back of a park bench so she could Spy on Pinkie who was a distance away, “Okay, Spike, just like we gone over…” the dragon nodded and tugged on one of the pulleys, where its wires pulled up Omni's arms, “Okay, just tell us whatever Pinkie is doing. We'll take note."

“Ugh, fine!” Omni squinted through the lenses, where he could see Pinkie Pie and a… “Twitchy tail…wait…” he recoiled from the binoculars, “Twitchy tail?”

“Twitchy tail… TWITCHY TAIL!!” both Spike and Omni broke into a full-scale panic; the dragon let got of the lever, causing Omni’s still-hurting arms painfully on his lap.

“Hush, you guys!” Twilight hissed, “We can’t let Pinkie know we’re here, remember?”

“Something’s gonna fall! Something’s gonna fall! Run for your lives!”

“Ugh! Spike, honestly. You’re overreact—“

“Twilight? Remember what you promised?!” Omni began panicking, “You heard the dragon! The sky's gonna—mmph!!”

“Enough!” Twilight jammed a hoof into Omni’s mouth, “I just about had it with this superstitious ridiculousness! Now repeat after me: nothing is going to—“

“Crash!” Went a flowerpot to the head.

“…Okay, it’s just one little flowerpot. And it didn’t really hurt that—“

“Smash!” the anvil went as it fell on the same spot, causing Twilight to recoil.

“…Well, I guess that would hurt a—whoa!” the unicorn scrambled backward to avoid the hay wagon that shattered right on top of him, “…A-alright, I’m sure the worst part is over. Now come on, let’s get you—waahh!!” the hard and fast descent of a piano flattening him caused Twilight to jump a clear distance back. When he close was clear, the tiptoed cautiously back to the giant pile of debris, “Omnifarious…?” the poked at the pile her friend was buried over, “Are you okay…?”

---

Later, Pinkie still didn’t have a care in the world until someone came by with a basket full of apples, “Hey, Applejack! Whatcha doin’?

“Takin’ more apples to mah new apple cellar. How ’bout you, Pinkie? What you doin’?”

“Oh, letting Omni and Twilight secretly follow me all day without me knowing.”

“What?!” the loud growl came from the blue pony who came stomping into view, once again in a bandaged mess, with Twilight and Spike following close by.

“You mean you knew all along?” Twilight argued, “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Silly, that would have spoiled the secret,” Pinkie's giggling smile was met with a grimace from Twilight.

“Tail still twitching?” Spike asked, hiding from behind Twilight.

“All done. Clear skies from here on in, as far as I can tell…” until she performed a whole new trick: her whole body shaking like a maraca.

Spike ducked back into his cover, “Oh, no! What does that one mean?”

“Don’t know. Never gotten any like it before. But whatever that shudder’s about, it’s a doozy! Something you never expect to happen is gonna happen!” another shudder ran over Pinkie, “And it’s gonna happen…at Froggy Bottom Bog!”

Applejack gasped, “That’s where Fluttershy’s headed!”

“Oh, no! Is it about her?” Spike peeked back out.

“Uh…I’m not sure,” Pinkie said.

“We’d better go and make sure she’s okay,” Applejack insisted.

“Calm down, everypony. All we know right now is that Pinkie Pie just got a case of the shivers. That’s all,” Twilight failed to realized until it was too late that everyone was already on their way to the Bog. One, however, was still close by, walking the other way…so she helped him find the way.

“What happened to being cynical?!”

“I’m being logical. This is just to prove I’m right about this.”

“Then leave me out of this!” Omni choked on some dust as he was being dragged along by Twilight’s magic, “Don’t you think I’ve gone to the hospital once too many?!”

“Just trust me on this, nothing is going to happen!”

“And if it does?!”

“It won’t, it’s as simple as that! And I just want to be there to see the look on Pinkie’s face when we find out nothing’s wrong.”

“Okey-dokey,” Pinkie replied.

The group never stopped as they entered through the marsh, except for the occasional shudder that Pinkie keeps getting, “Cold? Need a jacket or something?” Twilight teased as the continued.

“No, thanks. I’m fine,” Pinkie answered through another one.

“So, what do you think happened to Fluttershy?” Spike asked, worried.

“I hope nothin’.”

“I know, but…what do you think happened?”

“I’m tryin’ not to think about it.”

“Me too. But…I’m thinking about it anyway. Like…what if…she exploded?”

“Just exploded, for no reason?”

“Yeah, like, boom!” the whole group stopped.

“Whoa!” Pinkie gasped.

“I know!”

“What if…what if she exploded, and then…and then exploded again?”

“Can you do that? Can you explode twice?”

“Of course not.” Applejack grunted as they started back forth.

“But what if…she exploded…and exploded again…and then—“

“Um, guys!” Omni called out to the dragon and pony, “Let’s save the ‘what if's for after we find her.”

“Omnifarious is right, you know,” Twilight said, “I'm sure she’s alright.”

“I hope you’re right, for Fluttershy’s sake,” Applejack peeked through the trees to find a swamp right in front of them, “Look! There’s Froggy Bottom Bog!”

No one wasted any time scattering about and calling the pegasus’s name. It didn’t take to long, though, when someone had just then found her. The yellow pegasus was occupying herself by welcoming her overly-packed cargo of frogs to their new home in the swamp.

She was emptying her latest basket of frogs when Spike surprised her with a hug, “Fluttershy! You’re okay!”

“Of course,” the pegasus greeted.

Applejack sighed, “Whoo…what a relief.”

“I’m so glad everything’s all right,” Pinkie said.

“So…that’s it, right? Mission accomplished?” Omni asked, “That means we can go home now?”

“Um, you attention please…?” Twilight added herself with a prideful stride. Just what could she be so giddy about…? “Sorry. I know it’s not nice to gloat, but…”

“Then please don’t…”

“AHA!” the unicorn smugly burst out, “I told you there was nothing to worry about, and I was right,” Omni hid a short of annoyance towards Twilight's crowing; and the moment he looked away, he spotted something big and rough-looking swimming close by; really close by.

“Twilight, we can always wait until we—“

“I know, I know, just let me have this,” Twilight waved off before she continued on ranting, not even paying attention to the mist rising, “Pinkie Pie said whatever she was shuddering about was a(cough, cough)doozy, and(cough, cough)and the only(cough, cough)doozy here is how right I am.”

What rose from the mist was tall, mucky, scaly and towering right over the frightened group and right behind Twilight.

“O-okay, fine, we're all glad to admit how wrong we are, but we really need to—“

“Ah-ah-ah! You all really need to hear this,” Twilight said and continued on, “Pinkie’s made a lot of predictions today, but(cough, cough)ugh, what is that smell?” one towers became three, three growling towers looking very them, “But what we’ve shown here is that there’s no point in believing(cough, cough)in anything you can’t see for yourself.”

“Behind you, Twilight…!” Omni pointed a shuddering hoof over Twilight’s head, “Look! Behind! You!” Twilight finally decided to listen and turned around, where she had to crane her head to see what got everyone so scared, “See that?!?!”

“I see it…but I don’t believe it…!” looming overhead was a colossal, bronze-scaled, four-headed dragon. A roaring, colossal, bronze-scaled, four-headed dragon.

“Is that a hydra?” Pinkie squealed.

“Who cares? RUN!!” Applejack and the rest ran off to the opposite direction of the hydra; all except for Pinkie, who was too scared to process escaping.

“What are you doing; Come on!” Omni lunged over before one of the heads struck at their target to swing Pinkie by her tail (which suspiciously tastes like cotton candy) over to catch up with the other before doing the same thing.

The hydra wasn’t far behind and made several more bites into their targets, only giving the ponies more of a reason to run for their lives. They ran high and low, ducking and dodging and leaping whatever’s in front of them just to not lose their footing, all the while the hydra was biting into everything not pony.

“Everypony up that hill!” Twilight shouted as they closed in on an outcropping.

“HEEELLPP!!” came the cry of a small dragon, who got himself stuck knee-deep in mud.

“For the love of—Hold on!” Omni charged back and yanked Spike out by the tail, dragging him along before being able to climb on his back. Luckily the hydra had its foot stuck in muck which gave the escapees more distance between it and them.

“I think we’re gonna make it!” Twilight huffed.

“But Pinkie’s still shuddering!” Spike pointed ahead where Pinkie was vibrating along with the others. Suddenly…

“Oh, looky there. It’s stopped!” but then… “Ohhh! Theeere iiit iiis agaaaiiinnn!”

Lowered his head and pushed the pink pony up the hill to catch up with the others. Just when it looked like they're getting somewhere, suddenly they stop until Omni caught up. Eventually they hit the literal end of the road when they stopped in front of a giant fissure, with the only thing on the other side of a coupe of tall gaps was a rock wall. What’s worse is that the Hydra was closing in on their way.

“He’ll be up here in no time!” Twilight cried, “Quick! One at a time! Cross!”

“Uh, do you know any spells for turning a hydra into a mouse?” Spike asked Twilight.

“No!”

“How about a squirrel?”

“No!”

“How about—“

“No small rodents of any kind!”

“...That’s too bad.”

“A hop, skip, and a…” Fluttershy jumped over, one pillar at a time, to the opposite Rock ledge. Next was Spike (who used Omni’s head as a diving board, unfortunately), then went Pinkie (who had to get pulled back by Applejack when she was about to fall over).

Applejack pushed off from the edge with Pinkie in tow.

“He’s too close!” Twilight lowered her head and dug at the ground, “I’ll distract him. You guys go! Now!"

“And what are you supposed to do against that?!” Omni exclaimed pointing at the advancing Hydra.

Eventually she gave her answer, “CHAAARRRGE!!” and she ran in a full gallop towards the monster.

“This girl's crazy…!” Omni squeaked as he watched Twilight speed on forward. Twilight kept moving between the hydra’s feet where the heads tried to follow. That seemed to cause the body itself to tip and tumble over on its back. As Twilight made her way back to the chasm, the hydra rose back up and put its foot down, hard enough for the tremors to break one of the pillars ahead, leaving a much bigger gap between one end an the other, which makes Omni and Twilight practically stuck. It pretty much made itself clear how far down they would go and how far away they are from the others.

What’s worse is that Pinkie was still shuddering, Y-Y-Y-You have to jump!”

“I’ll never make it!” Twilight cried.

“You’ll be fine!”

“I will not!”

Omni himself was being found between a rock an a hard place. After an ear-splitting screech from the monsters, he was seriously considering taking Pinkie's advice, “How do you know we're not gonna just fall, Pinkie?!”

“Trust me! You'll be safe! Pinkie Sense never lie!”

Omnifarious took one more gut-wrenching look down the fissure and swallow, “You better be right about his!!” he ran off whimpering the opposite way, before letting off a warcry as he slung back in a full sprint, ready to vault over the giant chasm.

“What do you think you’re doing?!?” Twilight pulled forcefully to bring Omni back to her side before, for good measure, pinning herself over him to keep him on his back, “You cannot seriously think you can make it over that distance! What were you thinking?!”

“I was thinking about getting away from that huge monster over there!” Omni snarled aside.

“That means making a thousand-foot drop to your doom?! I though you were smarter than that!”

“It’s better than getting eaten!”

“Not even that justifies suicide! Don’t gamble your life on some dumb premonition!”

“Look, chances are we'll be able to make it to that last pillar!” Omni tried to crawl out from under Twilight, but the unicorn made it harder by pinning his arms.

“No, chances are we'll fall into a bed of sharp rocks on the way down!” Twilight snapped back, “Just calm down and we'll find another way!”

“Twilight, this is the only way!”

“No it's not! With all this Pinkie Sense nonsense going on, it's like nobody’s thinking straight!”

“Twilight…”

“It’s bad enough everyone else believes it, but now you say it’s the only thing to save our lives?!”

“Twilight…!”

“What?!”

“…Maybe all it takes, is a little bit of faith.”

Twilight stood quietly over him with a perplexed look, “You mean believing in a bunch of make-believe predictions and hope they come true? Is that your definition of 'faith'?”

“Yes!” it was Omni’s turn to snap, “Think about it: you’re backed into a corner with the only way out putting you in more danger than you already are; but can also potentially save your life. That’s what faith is: putting your trust in something. Whether or not you can understand it shouldn’t be the issue.”

“But…,” Twilight whimpered, “but it's just not possible. What’s the point in believing in something you don’t understand…”

“Understand the situation,” Omni pointed his nose back down hill, where Twilight looked, “Understand that?”

“…No?”

“What do you mean, 'no'?” Omni hopped back on his feet to see the hydra goofing off on its side; reading a comic with one head, drinking soda with the next, ect. Until they were caught, and decided that break time's over, “Okay, understand the situation now?!”

“Yes! Yeah, I get it!” Twilight began backing away as the hydra marched towards them. She and Omni looked one more time over the edge, “You do realize this is crazy, right?”

“Sometimes crazy works,” Omni said, “Besides, we’re betting our lives on Pinkie’s hunch! Are you saying you don’t have faith in her?”

“You really should’ve mentioned that earlier. Okay…” gulping, both Twilight and Omni whimpered backwards to gain a running start, before dashing forward screaming and launched themselves over right before the hydra could headbutt them. But the force caused the last pillar to tumble away under them.

They drop fast down the chasm, screaming the whole way down. Both didn’t have to tell each other this was the end. But the moment they touched the bog waiting for them at the bottom, they were saved…by a giant bubble that bounced them all the way back up the cliff, tossing them onto the other side with Pinkie and the others.

With Twilight sitting back up with a goofy grin on her, everyone cheered around her while Pinkie gave her a powerful hug, “I knew you could do it, Twilight!”

“I don’t know how it happened,” Twilight sighed in relief, “Coincidence, dumb luck, or what. But you said there’d be a doozy here at Froggy Bottom Bog, and I’d say we just had ourselves one heck of a doozy.”

“Hey, uh, Pinkie?” Pinkie looked down at Omni, who was still tumbled on his back, “The whole…snapping at you from before, I shouldn’t have done that…”

Pinkie gave a beaming smile right over him, “It’s okay, Omni. Don’t worry about it,” …followed by another series of the jitters.

Omni shot back up, “Pinkie…?”

“That wasn’t it,” she said in between shudders.

“What wasn’t what?” Spike asked.

“What are you talkin’ about, Pink?” Applejack asked.

“The hydra wasn’t the doozy,” Pinkie said, “I’m still getting the shudders!” as there went another, “You see? There it is again! Whatever the doozy was at Froggy Bottom Bog, my Pinkie Sense says it still hasn’t happened.”

“Oh, no…” Omni groaned, rolling over with his face covered, “No, no, no, I cannot go through anymore of this bull—“

“What?!?” came a loud outburst from Twilight, “The hydra wasn’t the doozy? How could it not be the doozy? What could be doozy-er than that?!”

“Dunno, but it just wasn’t it.”

As frustrated Omni was, it wouldn’t hold a candle to Twilight’s frustration. In fact, all of it she had pent up was released in one go. She was, literally, on fire! Eventually she got it out of her system and dropped in slightly-singed shambles, “I give up.”

“Give what up, Twi?” Spike asked.

“The fight…I can’t fight it anymore. I don’t understand how, why, or what. But Pinkie Sense somehow…makes sense. I don’t see how it does, but it just does! Just because I don’t understand, doesn’t mean it’s not true.

“Y-Y-You mean you b-b-believe?” Pinkie shuddered.

“Yep. I guess I do.”

The tremors in Pinkie intensified, which gave way to a lot of puffs and stretches until finally, it stopped. She gasped as she looked herself over, “That was it! That’s the doozy!”

Omni uncovered his eyes, “What? What is?”

“You believing! I never expected that to happen! That was the doozy!” Pinkie laughed, “Oh, and oh, what a doozy of a doozy it was!”

“Okay, lemme get this straight…” Omni scrambled to his feet to Twilight, “So you actually believe Pinkie Sense is a real thing?”

Twilight sighed, “Yes. Pinkie Sense is really a thing…”

“So that means no experiments? No more test subjects?”

“No! There won’t be any more reason for it…” Twilight groaned, “Omni, I’m sorry for everything happening lately, and I’m sorry for dragging you along. I didn’t realize things would turn out this bad…”

Omni remained silent for a moment, “I'm just glad I can just put this whole thing behind us…” suddenly a soft padding can be heard nearby, coming from Pinkie’s one-again-twitching tail. Everyone present backed away to the nearest corner or ledge, leaving a whole lot of space for a worn-out Omnifarious, “Please, no…ACK!” before getting swatted to the wall by a large, swung-over tree branch.

---

Meanwhile, the Book of Virtue gave itself a new entry:

“Dear Princess Celestia,
I’m happy to report that I now realize there are wonderful things in this world you just can’t explain, but that doesn’t necessarily make them any less true. It just means you have to choose to believe in them. And sometimes, it takes a friend to show you the way.

Honk.

Always your faithful student,

Twilight Sparkle.”

And the headline above entitled: “Faith.”