Chapter 2: Destiny Revealed
Pinkie had lost all track of all time in this living nightmare. Her daily routine since being captured by this psycho doctor, had been an unending series of tests and displays of physical endurance. Von Goul had been putting her through more strenuous activity then she had ever done back home on the farm. Luckily however, her childhood of moving rocks and boulders had helped to give her some much needed strength. She desperately needed it right now just to keep her moving let alone able to keep up with the doctors rigorous tests.
Whenever she failed to comply with his wishes or failed a test from exhaustion, he would shock her with his horn. It sometimes took several shocks in quick succession from the metal tipped horn to keep her awake.
One of his favorite tests was to make her run on a magical treadmill for hours, hooked up to a series of flashing machines and strange devices that hummed with magical energy. Her only incentive to go on being a slice of carrot cake dangling on a plate in front of her. She could never really reach it try hard as she might, mainly because she was fighting against the direction of the treadmill, but the reward was cake, so she had to try.
Next he would have her try to see how long she could hold her breath under water, his horn pulsing with orange magic as he used it to force her head back into the tub for the fifth time that day. She was getting better though; she only had to be resuscitated two times less than yesterday. Finally in the daily routine came a series of injections which needed to have her strapped back down on the metal gurney.
Once again the skeletal doctor used his fancy smelling gas to knock her unconscious, with her waking up once more tied down. While she was strapped down he brought over a tray of needles of varying lengths each one filled with different colored liquids. He applied the first set of injections not caring at her bursts of obvious discomfort, before going to wherever he went after he was done with her. Leaving her alone. It was just as well he was gone for she now started to hallucinate and feel stranger than she ever had before.
Up became down, down became up, sometimes she felt like her blood was molten lava, other times she couldn’t stop laughing as her entire body lit up like someone was tickling every part of her with a massive feather. She would then suffer through hours upon hours of mixed responses. Sometimes she was freezing cold, suffering frantic seizures, nearly barfing out the meager handful of oats she was given every morning, or experiencing unimaginable pain as several of the injections nearly burned her very mind to a crisp. Mercy was usually with her, for after a few hours of that, experience she would pass out. Of course only to wake up the next day for another round of tests, injections, abstract boredom, all at the hooves of a pony she knew nothing about other than he was a bit crazy.
When she woke up that day however, she decided she was going to do something different. Her Unicorn tormentor was a strict (and seriously boring) behavioral stallion. He always followed the same routine every morning. Today however, She was going to take control of the routine for herself. As the ghoulish doctor prepped her for the treadmill unfastening the straps of the gurney, she made her move as soon as the straps snapped off.
She placed one of her pink hooves over his nearest metal clad one, enjoying the buzz that only comes from the feelings of a male pony touching a girl for the first time in his life (Remember folks, moms and family don’t count). When she gazed up at his red eyes she smiled to see the two orbs were opened wide while the usual intimidating red irises, had shrunken to the size of a pea.
“Not that this stuff isn’t…fun or er-anything, but are you sure there isn’t anything else we could be doing?” She asked innocently, making sure to pout her bottom lip, and give him the seductive shoulder dip and an alluring smile.
The grey unicorn gulped nervously, before lighting his horn up bright orange. Pinkie prepared for the feeling of getting blasted by unicorn magic, only for nothing to happen. As she looked over at him, she noticed that he was using his magic to remove the metal brace on his leg. Bare grayish fur now meeting her solid pink.
“Soft…and warm,” he whispered. “I had almost forgotten the touch of another…willingly.”
Pinkie’s eyes lit up with hope at that, perhaps she would be getting out of this intact and alive after all?
“So, does that mean you’re going to let me go now?” She asked.
The grayish Unicorn smiled at her, leaning in very close till their noses were practically touching.
“…No,” he stated, right before his horn lit up and his orange magic engulfed her, forcibly pinning her hooves to her sides, levitating her as well, above the ground.
“Darrrrrrnnnniiiitttt!” She wailed, as he dragged her over to the treadmill, shoving her onto of it and cranking it up for her. As she cantered in place, she looked at him with narrowed eyes, watching as he monitored her progress on one of his machines and looked over a parchment read-out.
“Whatcha ya doing over there?” She inquired, noticing begrudgingly that her stamina had improved from the days of running on this stupid thing.
“Quiet!” snarled the unicorn, never breaking gaze with the parchment in his for-hooves.
“So I take it you don’t meet many ponies huh?”
“I said quiet girl! I’m not interested in such small talk.”
“Oh realllllllly…”she beamed. “Then what was all that about not feeling anothers' touch in such a loooonnnnggggg time?”
The grey unicorn blushed and bashfully hung his head, “t-t-that’s none of your concern,” he stammered
Pinkie seeing she had hit a nerve smiled as she pried even further, “Oh come on a…handsome, stallion like you?”
“You’re patronizing me…”he stated, glaring at her. “Do you think I always looked like this?”
Pinkie never stopped trotting but the grin she had been wearing died down at that, her eyes looking quizzically at him.
For whatever reason the unicorn continued. “You see ever since I was a young colt, I was intrigued by how our world works, where our magic comes from, what it is fully capable of. I swore I would spend my life working to find out those answers. Such dedication takes time, energy, and of course bits, lots of bits, so much so that it is hard to pay for assistants.” Von Goul began to come closer to the treadmill his gaze bland, as if he was a thousand miles away. "With no assistants or willingly test subjects, one has to do with what they can, so I used myself to test my experiments. My eyes used to be green, can you believe that? Green like grass, but a pigment changing spell gone awry saw the end of that…I used to have muscle tone and proper stature as well, but while I was exploring the possibility of shrinking spells, well you can see what happened.”
Pinkie nodded her head towards the metal tipped horn, her fluffy pink mane bobbing up and down with her body as she trotted along. “And your horn?”
The stallion looked away. “Did you know that unicorns horns are basically just bones? Tough bones but still bones…I was trying a bone strengthen spell when it backfired and it caused an opposite effect. The tip of my horn was made brittle and weak, I had to do something to keep it from snapping off…losing your horn, means you lose your magic, you lose your ability to manipulate life magic, I couldn’t allow that.”
The unicorn came up beside her turning off the treadmill and preparing to lead her to the tub once more. “After all of that I couldn’t risk anymore backfires, I had to find others to test my experiments on, and when you don’t mind your subjects being unwilling, there’s plenty of volunteers to choose from.”
“Fascinating,” snorted Pinkie.
It was several more days of this painstaking routine over and over before finally one morning she awoke to find herself strapped in a new position. She was crammed in some sort tube like structure hovering off the ground, being pinned like this was starting to give her legs and back a serious ache. Von Goul trotted around below her, checking machines, pulling switches ad humming to himself (Pinkie was proud to note it was one of the songs she hummed to him during their test). The melody not surprisingly was annoyingly catchy.
“So what’s up doc?”
“…ha-ha-ha, as if that wasn’t funny the first fifty times you said it,” he mockingly growled at her.
“Just keeping you entertained…” countered Pinkie sarcastically.
“Oh don’t worry pink pain in my rear end, you’ve got plenty of entertainment left to offer me,” he snickered. “Today is the day, we start Fourth Pool trials.”
Pinkie grew silent at that, her mind starting to panic with the possibilities of what might happen to her.
“HA! Knew that would shut you up…prepare yourself my little pony.”
Pinkie struggled a bit in the restraints, “So how is this going to work?” She asked.
The grey Unicorn smiled, “Our tests have given you the stamina to withstand the power of the water, the injections have accustomed your body to different kinds of magical effects, and our waterboarding sessions have allowed you to hold your breath and cool while submerged. So what’s going to happen is, I’m going to drop you right into a vat filled with water from the Fourth Pool, then see what happens.”
“Oh,” Pinkie mumbled. “Is that all?”
The other stallion nodded his head, “In truth it doesn’t sound very scientific I agree. However, one thing about experimental research is, sometimes you just have to…drop right in, and see what happens.”
Pinkie gave a loud groan, “Really and you complain about my bad jokes?”
Von Goul glared at her before lighting up his horn, creaking sounds of gears and pulleys echoing throughout the silent room, as a trap door in the floor opened up. Inside the the hole was a square tube ten feet long and five feet wide of blue liquid, what looked like water except for the mass of purple bubbles fizzling inside it.
Pinkie gulped as she felt the tube she was in begin to lower as well, the newly opened floor panel goring closer and closer. Her eyes growing wide and her fur beginning to sweat as she grimaced and began pulling once more at the straps holding her down.
“Umm are you sure there aren’t anymore tests we can do? Or better yet, we could just forget this and grab some cake instead huh?” She began to beg frantically, afraid of what the strange waters would do to her.
“Unfortunately there are no more tests to be had,” he lamented, shutting down her hopes. “Your magical energy is strong, your body is strong and soon we will see if it’s compatible with the energy of the pool, and if so, then a whole new world of tests can begin, if not… I’ll just find someone else.”
Not very inspired by such confidence, Pinkie gulped and rolled her eyes, cringing as the tube slowly began to enter the vat, the water fizzling and bubbling at the introduction of metal to the viscous liquid.
“The first time I introduced a pony to the pool, they literally exploded upon contact,” Von Goul stated watching intently. “It was quite an experience to witness, and made me focus more on choosing subjects with strong energy signatures.”Coming closer and staring right into her eyes he halted the tube before Pinkie’s hooves began to enter the water. “My dear Pinkie Pie, this is for science, this is for knowledge, so if there is any kind of major discomfort or serious pain…be sure to scream very loud,” he smirked before cutting off his horn’s magic and dropping her straight into the vat, the top of her tube encasing replacing the opened floor tile.
Pinkie had never felt such a rush of energy in her body before in her life, it shot up from her hooves through her spine and into her head, her fur buzzing and poofing out to the extreme. The waters didn’t feel hot or cold, in fact it didn’t feel like she was in water at all. Everything was swirling and buzzing, her fur crackling, her nerves shot and her nerve endings numb as if they couldn’t figure out what kind of response they should be giving. She was holding her breath, eyes scrunched shut, only able to wonder how long she would be in this tube before she had to breathe. Opening her eyes she was surprised at what she saw. Outside the water looked normal aside from the purple bubbles, the view from inside however, was quite different. Everything was blurry and sparkling, colors of every kind caught her eyes, she tried to move and felt her body go almost sluggish, as if everything was slowed down to a fraction of time. She could see so many colors, she could even see inside those colors, to the very particles themselves. Pinkie could even see through those particles and gaze unlike any other pony before her, at the very crystalline structures of the matter of all of creation.
Her mind was blown open by everything she was seeing and feeling, her entire body lit up like a christmas tree, surprised as she could see a pink aurora glowing about her body. She realized after a few more moments of this that what she was seeing was her life signature. The energy that the grey unicorn needed a spell to see was now laid open before her eyes. Looking down at herself, she could see pink and purple and blue coiling about her body and radiating energy outwards. The blue and purple energy she realized was the pools energy signature mixing with her own, the feelings beyond anything she had ever thought possible. It was like souls mixing together, it was powerful and intimate, but also very strange. The strangeness was evident especially since she realized she had stopped holding her breath ages ago. The strain on her lungs had just been too much to hold it any longer, and yet here she could breathe fine. It was as if the water itself filtered the air for her, or maybe the bubbles made it possible for her to breathe, either way the feeling of breathing under water was as alarming as it was fascinating.
Her brain was also trying to sort though the energy and sparks that was filtering through it, as the water surrounded her entirely, it’s energy mixing with hers. The feeling of energy moving across and through the synapses of her brain was unbelievable. It’s power flowing through her felt like a million back scratches or party streamers trailing through he fur, but in this case it was her head. She suddenly got flashes of strange things: visions, faces, ponies she had never seen before, monsters and creatures beyond imagining. She didn’t just see them now, she could feel them: the intimate contact of fur upon fur, of hugs, of pain both emotional and physical, feelings of excitement, of joy. Flashes of cakes, pastries and a colorful shop filled with ponies young and old, of all colors and breeds greeted her new sight.
There was something else though that stood out to her; a group of mares, sitting together while eating cake and drinking milkshakes and laughing together. Pinkie could see herself among them. She knew their names, knew their faces though she had never met them before, never seem them, but she knew them. She was just not able to put her hoof down on exactly where she knew them from.
When she woke up she was back in the darkly lit room that had been her home for how long she couldn’t tell. A very familiar and unwelcome face peering down at her.
“This is amazing, a complete bonding of the waters properties into your very body… if these readings are correct, you’ve been supercharged by the pools magical energy.”
Von Goul was very excited, chattering to himself as he began wiring her up with sensors, returning to his parchment read out to analyze the recorded data.
“How do you feel Pinkie?” he asked abruptly, in his excitement tangling an entire roll of parchment about his chest and hooves.
“F-f-fine,” she stammered, still feeling something big brewing in her body, every nerve she had on end, and her brain feeling like it was popping like popcorn.
“Well, you survived. I was hoping you would. Now we can start testing to see exactly what effects the pool has left on you.”
Pinkie looked over at him her eyes wide, “but…but this is not where I’m supposed to be…” she sounded so confused, but her mind was intently focused on one place. That small goody filled corner of heaven. With her sitting there with five other ponies together, laughing, having fun, and just being together.
Those mares, who were they? They seemed so friendly, so familiar to her, almost like they were family. She knew deep down that for some reason she loved them, but she didn’t even know their names. The harder and the more she concentrated on it, the more she could feel the build up of energy in her very blood grow.
Visions began to flash through her mind, the first of a blue winged Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail. From her Pinkie could sense a unwavering sense of loyalty albeit lack of charm, seeing the Pegasus zooming through the skies trailing a massive rainbow trail behind her wake.
<"R-Rainbow Dash…"> The name appearing in her mind as soon as she visualized the cyan colored pegasus. The next vision she encountered was of another pony. She was a tough orange mare with lovely blonde hair and a wide brimmed brown hat, evoking inside her a strong sense of honesty and motherly compassion. AppleJack.
The next was a white prissy looking Unicorn with a purple mane and fancy blue dragon scale dress, despite the fact she looked like she was high on herself, she carried with her a sense of generosity and style…Rarity…She tried shutting her eyes, and in response the visions came flashing even faster and faster across her mind. The same faces and now names repeated over and over, the names themselves began echoing in her head again and again.
Now there was a timid looking yellow pegasus mare with pink mane, but she did not fly. Instead she walked upon the ground. She was surrounded by all sorts of creatures and animals, every one of them looking up at her as she radiated kindness, and understanding, sweet sweet Fluttershy.
Lastly there came a purple unicorn mare, her horn leaking energy and a young reptile like creature of what appeared to be a dragon beside her, and from this mare pinkie felt a familiar and excited twang of happiness, she was friends with this mare, and this mare’s friendship meant more to her than anything else…Twilight…Sparkle.
Their faces and names flashed and screamed inside her head, again and again, repeating the images and the visions over and over. Energy filled her body as her heart kept pounding, the sound of it thumped harder and harder, the energy from the pool penetrating it and making it beat faster and faster. From the visions of the five mares came a new sensation, every time one of them appeared to her they glowed with an aurora similar to the one she saw in herself in the pool. Magical energy peeling off of their shapes and mingling together, purple, orange, blue, rainbow, yellow and pink, colors and auroras of great power swirling about her eyes and her mind.
From outside her head, Von Goul looked in shock at the readings coming across the feedback, he couldn’t understand it, it almost looked as if there were multiple energy singers appearing from inside her. “This is impossible, no pony can have more than one energy signature…but you have multiple unique signatures radiating from your body, this is unheard of!”
Pinkie just opened her eyes at his exclamation, no longer caring about the ghoul doctor, she could feel the conflicting energy pooling inside of her, mixing together growing in intensity, and growing in magnitude. She began to spark and twinkle as the energy started leaking from her body in massive spurts, the machines she was hooked up to lighting up, some starting to spark and nearly explode from the overload of energy.
Von Goul couldn’t believe his eyes, fear and excitement gripping his heart as he stared wide eyed at the pink mare before him. Her body seizing up as flashes of magical energy exploded from her. Each seizure seemingly charging up an energy burst before it pulsated outwards, overloading his equipment and making his own fur stand on end. The doctor stepped backwards noticing the strain on his equipment, the devices fit near to exploding.
"This is impossible! The energy it’s super charging everything, it’s overloading the equipment! You have to control it girl, control it!” he screamed at her.
Pinkie however, was beyond caring about controlling it she just wanted to fully understand what it was she was seeing. What were these visions saying? what was their purpose? Who were these mares and where is this place she saw so clearly in her mind located. The build up of power was now at it’s crescendo, all the forces inside her primed, all they needed was a match to set the keg alight.
As she lay there, magical energy exploding out from her, the most powerful energy still growing inside, she sifted through the visions in her head, the names, the places… searching. She passed through mountains and holes, passing by horrendous looking creatures and a gangling scrawny troll like thing caressing a golden ring…<"nope not here she thought">.
Now she was flying through the stars and space, passing through some sort of large metallic moon (no not a moon, some sort of station, in space) beside flying contraptions that shot beams of light into some sort of small opening no bigger than a wamprat (whatever in Celestia’s name that was). Not here either it seemed.
She traveled through massive cities, with buildings and towers reaching into the clouds and strange two legged creatures, pink skinned like her fur walking about their day. She went through some sort of black like box with a bright screen, and found herself gazing at large boards of pictures, pictures of her, picture of other ponies, all in some order of events, and those same two legged beings, drawing her. Arranging the pictures and and showing others who drew on pads of paper.
From there she entered some sort of small cramped apartment room, one of those creatures huddled over some sort of box with a window, typing as if he was using a fancy new typewriter, his brows scrunched in concentration, his eyes bleary from lack of sleep, and a gaggle of books and folders labeled, homework stacked everywhere untouched.
Finally she came back to Equestria, recognizing the landmarks she was seeing from old maps her father kept in his study. Zooming past the fields and streams, the Ever-Free Forrest, the palace at Canterlot and down it’s waterfall into a bright colored valley.
From there it was a short skip and a leap until she was standing right in the center of a quaint little village right in front of the little store crammed full of pastries and cakes.
One word entered her head, one word stuck with her, promising a future, a life, and all hopes for a fun-filled tomorrow…
Ponyville.
It was then that the keg ignited.
Van Goul gave a shriek of dismay as the pink mare seemingly exploded, magical energy of every color and with great intensity enveloping the entire room. His equipment exploded and his fur was badly singed, his eyes wide and startled burned with the ferocity of the magic swirling around him. He tried to raise a magical shield from his horn only to have his energy dissipated and assimilated into the swirl of colors engulfing his body. The energy burned right into his Irises and into his mind, lighting up his brain and body with supercharged energy that felt as if he was being fried like an egg.
The explosion carried on past him him, the grey unicorn absorbed into the wave of energy, which then smashed into the walls of the Inn. The energy was being contained like a balloon fit to burst, the build up growing and growing bottling like a cork, until with a creak and groan the Guzzling Mare, creaked one last time and exploded.
Blowing sky high the release of power shot a fountain of magical energy that extended to the sky. It was like a powerful tornado as it spun and cascaded throughout the dark sky, before it dissipated. Returning to the ground, to the air, or further into the night and on to the stars.
Among the wreckage of the inn, lay Pinkie Pie, just lying there starring into the night sky. She couldn’t remember anything of what she had seen in the visions. Her mind having returned to normal, the feelings of multiple kinds of energy had also dissipated from her body. The last thing she remembered seeing was Von Goul getting engulfed in energy then only bright colors, a loud bang and a creaking groan, then nothing but the black night starring back at her. The stars were twinkling as if winking to her about some unheard cosmic joke. Getting up she began to shift through the debris, looking for the only thing she needs to continue on her way. As if by magic something nagged at her to look to the right hand corner of the wreck-age, so she trotted over and used a hoof to paw at the debris. There she found her saddlebags still intact wiggling herself underneath them, positioning them on her back she got up and started on her way. A flickering thought went to the grey unicorn and if he might be alright, but Pinkie couldn’t help but feel an overwhelming drive to keep moving. She assumed Von Goul was alright seeing as she didn’t seem to see or smell charred pony anywhere.
As she continued on her way down the highway, finally glad to be back on track, a nagging feeling began to grow in her head. It was a strange feeling, like a guided hoof pushing her towards the direction it wanted to go, the feeling turning into a need, a yearn to head west. Her tail fizzed and upon reflection of the fact she couldn’t seem to get the feeling to leave her, she decided she should listen to her instincts. Turning west she headed down the road hopping and skipping, not really knowing where she was going. Only one name kept popping into her head, one goal, one destination…a place that all her instincts told her where she could have a new life, a future, a new family…one word, one place, one name…
Ponyville.
A mile away, in the middle of a clearing filled with debris from the destroyed Inn, was a massive pile of charred woods and beams. With a great heave the pile exploded outwards as a very ragged grey unicorn staggered out from under it. His coat was gone, burned off; the harness on his chest was charbroiled, and his fur was either singed or blackened. Entire patches were missing where they had been burned off, part of his ear missing thanks to chunk of metal that had shot through it. He staggered to his for-hooves, his strength leaving him, his throat felt on fire, his body burned and ached. His research was gone, his equipment in shambles if not completely destroyed, and his greatest test subject had fled.
Worst of all was, he could no longer see, his eyes had taken the full brunt of the magical explosion. Nothing but bright colors swirled in his vision, even when he closed his eyes all he saw was flashing spectrum's of light. The once blazing red irises now poetically bright party pink. But it had worked, the energy of the Fourth Pool had bonded to the pink pony, and she had managed to store it, wield it and expel it…different energy signatures could mean only one thing, there were others with her kind of strength out there, those energies had not been the mare’s alone.
He would find her again, he would find his greatest achievement and he would do whatever it takes to learn the mysteries of the powers she now possessed, even if he had to cut her open to do it.
But first he needed to figure out how he was going to find his way out of here.
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This is very underrated. It has some minor grammar problems (check them out) but its very enjoyable. I'm not that of a comic reader but I expected a Deadpool cameo or something... the scene where Pinkie has a vision of her friends is great though.
7018010 I was arguing whether or not i should put him in there, I used the cover art mainly because i like the comparison between Pinkie and Dead-pool, given their fourth wall breaking abilities, so I might edit it so he has a cameo in the fourth wall breaking scene.
Mainly the whole thing was supposed to parody the Deadpool movie, while also fulfilling my idea of how Pinkie got her powers. The whole seeing her friends thing was a last moment of inspiration, but it's my favorite part if i say so myself.
I'll go over my story again, but if you can point out any particular grammar errors you noticed it would be very much appreciated.
7018226 Sorry it took this long, but I had to be sure and I read it again the next days. These are the errors:
Missing a point.
Backwards quotation marks.
Rainbow Dash.
And for a quick advice, don't tell it's your first story, no one will give you compassion.
7030381 I never ask for what i don’t deserve...I asked for absolute honesty (i can take it) and appreciate it when it was given. Thank you very much for your efforts :)
When I saw the cover, I thought, "Oh, this is going to be Deadpool, but with Pinkie Pie... how original
..." and almost passed it up. The only reason I checked it out was because it was short, and I'll be honest, I'm glad I did. It's not the best quality - though that will improve with practice - but it's a unique take on Pinkie's abilities. The fact that she doesn't remember any of it fits her character so much better than most of the other explanations I've seen, or even personally come up with.
Over all, I'm glad I gave this a chance, and look forward to seeing you grow and improve as an author. Of course, I will say that I can be a harsh critic, but I never criticize without also giving tips, opinions, or thoughts on how to improve, nor do I expect anyone to take my advice as if it were gospel. I have too many problem with my own fics to think I'm an expert.
I'm definitely sharing this.
7101173 Thank you, this was actually the first thing I wrote on here, and yeah it's not the best thing, mainly because i wanted to go alone, with no editor for the first time, and did editing on my own. I'm sure with an editor i could have refined it even more, but i kind of like it as a testament to what i was, so if/when i improve i can show how i did so.
Glad you liked the story, and thanks for all the support and criticism.