10 - Pretty Pink Princess Ponies Prancing Perpendicular
Chapter Ten
Pretty Pink Princess Ponies Prancing Perpendicular
Even compared to Canterlot’s, the Manehattan train station was enormous. As she stepped onto one of its multiple platforms, Rainbow Dash gawked at the vaulted ceiling high above her head. Without Daring’s guidance, Rainbow would have been overwhelmed by the swarms of hurried ponies darting across the floor like bees over a hive. As it was, Rainbow followed Daring’s lead as they flew over the dense crowd to the building’s eastern exit. Only five or six other pegasi occupied the airspace. Manehattan was home to few winged ponies.
The world outside the station was no less busy. A lively vibration pulsed through the metropolis. Rainbow felt it course through her bones and tingle in her wings. She smiled at the skyscrapers, itching to stand on the peaks of their spires. She ogled the vendors lining the old roads and puzzled over the polarized outfits worn by most pedestrians.
Daring noticed her stares. “This city’s home to a lotta ponyfolk, kid,” she said, “from every walk of life you can imagine. Only the very rich and the very poor bother with clothing.”
Rainbow watched a pair of colts down the street, dressed in tattered shirts and soiled hats, try to sell a newspaper to an uninterested mare in a fine, green dress. “Why?” she asked Daring.
“So ponies know they’re very poor or very rich,” she smirked. “Pride on the one hoof, desperation on the other.”
Rainbow frowned. “That’s... kinda sad.”
“That’s how it works outside of perfect little Ponyville,” Daring said with a shrug. She quickly looked in both directions and started trotting north.
Furrowing her brow, Rainbow followed her at a brisk trot. “That’s not true. I’ve never seen that kind of thing in Cloudsdale or Canterlot.”
“What kind of thing?” Daring asked in a bored tone.
The pair stopped at the paper peddlers. Daring reached into one of her new shirt’s pockets and pulled out a couple of bits. The boys thanked her graciously and hoofed her one copy from the top of their stack.
“You know,” Rainbow answered in a whisper once they’d moved away from the colts, “the… class separation, or whatever.”
“Huh?” Daring wasn’t paying attention, attempting to open the newspaper while she walked.
Rainbow grunted. “I’ve never seen any poor ponies before!” she said.
Stopping for a moment, Daring gave her a sideways glance. “Really?”
“Not like this!” Rainbow clarified, gesturing to the street around them. Everywhere she looked, grungy ponies wearing hardly more than rags trotted sullenly over the sidewalk.
Daring snorted. “You haven’t explored Canterlot much, have you?”
Rainbow blinked. “There’s, like… poverty? In Canterlot?”
“Not as much as there is here,” Daring admitted, “but yeah. There’s poverty everywhere, kid.”
“Not in Ponyville…” Rainbow muttered.
“Yeah, well. There’s not much of anything in Ponyville. Except good pie.”
Rainbow dragged her hooves as Daring led them closer to the eastern docks. Manehattan itself was built on an island, according to the fuzzy maps in Rainbow’s memory. She had never sailed on a ship before, and she briefly worried that she might get seasick. Those thoughts were quickly pushed aside in favor of more distressing matters: Why was she so surprised to see all these unfortunate ponies in the streets? Had she really expected everypony in Manehattan to be as well-to-do as Applejack’s relatives? Maybe the sophistication of Canterlot had skewed her view on big cities.
Daring interrupted with a rough game plan. “N’kay, so we’re gonna reach the docks, find that blue goon with a missing leg, and chase him and his partner around Manehattan for a while. Attract as much attention as you can. If any witty one-liners pop into your head, feel free to blurt ‘em out. Hopefully the nappers are pretty quick—we don’t want the chase to be too short. If they have the twins with them, try to chase them up somewhere really high where we have to rescue them from danger.”
Rainbow’s face contorted. “What!?”
Daring tucked her unread newspaper under a wing and waved her hoof dismissively. “You’re right, that’s too much detail. Just go with the flow, but make it exciting.”
Before she could voice her confusion, Rainbow’s attention was snatched by the sparkling horizon as the pair rounded a corner.
“There she is,” Daring remarked with a satisfied sigh. “The Big Blue.”
“Horseapples,” Rainbow swore. “That’s a lot of water.”
Daring barked a laugh and slapped Rainbow on the back. “You noob! Come on, let’s get a better view.”
She took to the air with a heavy beat of her wings, letting the unread newspaper drop to the sidewalk. Grinning wildly, Rainbow followed her into the sky. They flapped in sync, pushing their bodies higher and higher until they came to the midpoint of an outlying skyscraper. Hovering there, the pegasi swept their fuchsia eyes across the shining sea. It stretched out with apparent infinity to the north, east, and south.
“Wow,” Rainbow whispered.
Daring chuckled. “I thought you said something about visiting Los Pegasus before.”
“Yeah, my parents live there,” Rainbow said. “The ocean’s pretty and all, but you can see Trottingham just across the bay. This is…” She shook her head, wide-eyed. “This is crazy.”
“It is pretty,” Daring had to agree. “Sometimes I forget about that. I used to live on the water back in the day, more or less. Always traveling to one country or another.”
“Must have gotten pretty lonely,” Rainbow said off the cuff. “I hate being away from my friends for too long.”
Daring cleared her throat. “Yeah…” she mumbled.
The sound of their wings fell into rhythm with the murmur of the city far below. Considering the task at hoof, the moment was remarkably peaceful.
A self-satisfied grin curled over Daring’s lips as she mentally constructed the beginning of her next novel: As Daring Do cast her watchful eyes over the Draconic Ocean, she thought back to the flowing tears that stained the face of Lady Bunt. “You must rescue them, Daring Do!” she had implored— er, begged. Desperately begged. “Only you can save the royal orphan twins!”
“I’m no hero, ma’am,” Daring had tried to explain. “I’m only a humble archeologist with a quick tongue and a broken heart.”
Maybe that was a bit much, but first drafts were always overloaded. Daring kept going.
Lady Bunt had shaken her head. “Only your keen eye for detail and fearlessness in the face of danger are enough to bring them home.”
Daring bowed her head and expelled a hesitant sigh. “Who took them?” she asked.
“We don’t know,” Lady Bunt sobbed. “Surely you can find out.”
Daring rolled her eyes and grunted. “I’ll do my best. Do we at least have an idea to where they may have been taken?”
“Back to Equestria, no doubt,” Lady Bunt whimpered.
“Back to Equestria? That’s on the other side of the world!”
Blah blah blah, exposition, make up a reason for the twins to be in Manehattan…
Daring extended her wings out to her sides. “Don’t worry, Lady Bunt. I will travel back to Equestria, I will find the royal orphans, and I will not let anything distra—”
“Hey, check it out!” Rainbow Dash pointed a hoof out over the water. “There’s a ship on its way in!”
Daring’s eyes focused on the distant dot cutting through the ocean. She opened her mouth to speak, but Rainbow had already pulled her wings in for a dive. Daring watched the cyan pony’s colorful trail stretch through the air and end among the docks. With a roll of her eyes, Daring plummeted as well, securing her hat with one hoof.
“Hey, kid!” she called out, landing beside Rainbow as they wove between droves of ponies. “Kid, that’s not a—”
Rainbow rushed ahead, cutting in between a group of burly stallions. Daring winced apologetically as she trotted around the scowling steeds and galloped after Rainbow with a deeply creased brow.
“Stupid pony. Doesn’t she know anything about overseas travel?” she mumbled under her breath, chasing after her inexperienced partner.
{-DD-}
Ditzy Doo squeezed her right eye shut and struggled to keep the other focused. She had enough trouble navigating the wide dirt roads of Ponyville without bumping into trees, houses, and other ponies from time to time. The bustling streets of Manehattan and uncomfortably crammed harbor were proving themselves quite challenging.
“Hey, watch it!” a scruffy stallion snapped as she stepped on the back of his hoof.
“Sorry!” Ditzy yelped, keeping her eye on the ground. Her helmet collided with a tall mare’s saddlebag.
“I say!” she complained, stumbling from the impact.
“So sorry!” Ditzy said again, weaving around her and several of her sneering companions. Step by careful step, Ditzy managed to make it to the edge of the docks with only two or three more mishaps. She opened both of her eyes and stared out over the ocean, breathing in its salty smell and remembering days long gone.
“Good to see you again,” she said to the water, allowing a smile to lift one corner of her mouth.
A blink, a determined snort, and Ditzy turned back to the throngs. By some stroke of luck, a passenger vessel was embarking later that hour, which meant there hadn’t been a departure for at least two days. The foalnappers—and, hopefully, the foals themselves—were somewhere in the city, perhaps even somewhere on the docks. Ditzy aimed her eyes at the ground and slipped into the current of busy ponies, watching for any blue feathers snagged along the wood.
At another end of the long harbor, Daring grabbed Rainbow’s tail in her teeth.
“Hey!” the cyan pony yelped, losing her balance and slamming into the ground. Her helmet dropped off her head and rolled off the edge of the dock, sinking into the ocean. Rainbow twisted her head around and gave Daring a furious glare. “What was that for?”
“We’re on a mission, kid, in case you’ve already forgotten,” Daring said, yanking Rainbow onto her hooves by her tail.
“Youch!” Rainbow pulled her tail out of Daring’s grasp and frowned. “I thought we’d find the foalnappers waiting for that ship.” She pointed out over the ocean at the vessel headed straight for their dock.
Daring slid a hoof over her face. “That’s a cargo ship, kid. It doesn’t carry any passengers; it’s too slow.”
Rainbow squinted at the distant ship. “Really? How can you tell from here?”
“Because it’s on the water?” Daring said as if it was painfully obvious.
Confused, Rainbow raised an eyebrow and opened her mouth. Rather than a question, a sharp gasp rushed between her lips.
Daring blinked. “What? What is it?”
Rainbow’s pupils shrunk as she discreetly pointed to something behind Daring. The yellow mare pretended to crack her neck, sneaking a glance at the dozen or so ponies gathered on the dock behind her. Among them were two lean pegasi stallions with uncommonly narrow snouts: one was tan with a midnight blue mane and amber eyes, surveying the sky nonchalantly; the other’s coat was a softer shade of blue, his long mane rusty-orange, but his colors were hardly his defining feature. His front left leg was nothing more than a gnarled stub, and his left wing was lowered to the ground for balance. Between the stallions was a large, covered basket.
Daring and Rainbow exchanged a meaningful glance. They waited in silence for several seconds.
“What do we do?” Rainbow asked.
“Wait for my mark,” Daring answered in an even tone, “then chase them toward the city.”
Rainbow gulped. “Shouldn’t we just, like… grab the basket?”
“Nah, over too quickly.”
“How about I grab the basket and you chase them to the pol—”
“We’re not splitting up. Bad idea.”
Rainbow frowned. “Okay… ‘chase them into the city’ it is.”
Daring smirked, waited a few second more, and gave a commencing nod.
“Here we go,” Rainbow said, grinning in spite of her disapproval.
In unison, the green-clad mares flapped their wings and dove at the crowd behind Daring.
“Give back the foals!” Rainbow demanded.
“Hooves up, punks! As many as you have, anyway,” Daring taunted.
The Haissanic stallions reacted with surprising speed. The three-legged blue one took to the skies as his comrade grabbed the basket in his teeth. By the time Daring landed where the basket had been, both of the foalnappers were twenty feet in the air. Rainbow Dash, however, to Daring’s bafflement, was already ten feet above them.
“Come on, put ‘em up!” she shouted at the ascending duo, flying backwards and punching her front hooves in their direction. “Let’s go!”
The Haissanic stallions traded unsure expressions before diving downward in an attempt to swoop beneath Rainbow Dash.
“Oh no you don’t!” she shouted, twisting midflight to keep on her eyes on the fleeing ponies. With two quick snaps of her wings, Rainbow was directly above them, grinning lazily at their widening eyes.
“Maybe you foreign ponies haven’t heard of me,” she said, flipping forward with another burst of flaps. She snatched the basket out of the tan stallion’s jaws and ended up below the stallions, backstroking through the air and dangling the basket from an outstretched hoof.
“I’m the fastest mare in Equestria,” she finished with a snide wink. “Nice to meet’cha.”
The flabbergasted foalnappers watched in surprise as the blue mare spread her wings, catching a draft from the ocean breeze and dropping to the edge of the docks. Looking over their shoulders, both distracted stallions slammed into the side of Manehattan’s outermost skyscraper, leaving trails of slobber as they slid down the glass.
“Ha!” Rainbow barked from the ground. “Serves you right!”
“What the heck are you doin’, kid?” Daring’s voice bellowed over the oblivious crowd on the docks, going about their business without so much as a glance at the scene.
Rainbow winced at the anger in Daring’s disembodied voice. She searched the crowd for her hero, keeping one hoof on top of the basket.
Daring pounced from the edge of the crowds like a Jack-in-the-Box. Startled, Rainbow did nothing to stop her from planting her hooves on Rainbow’s chest and pinning her to the ground.
“What was that about?” Daring roared in her face.
“I saved the foals!” Rainbow shot back.
“In, like, ten seconds!” Daring whined. “What kind of adventure is that?”
“I focused on the mission, just like you said,” Rainbow said, wriggling under Daring’s weight. “And look: I even chased them into the city!”
Daring groaned and backed off of Rainbow, biting the basket’s handle and flying toward Manehattan.
Rainbow used her wings to get back up and followed Daring’s flight with a wary squint. “What is she doing?” she asked herself, galloping for a few strides before pushing off into the air.
Daring coasted to the base of the building where the Haissanic ponies were gathering their senses. They backed away from her approach and watched in confused silence as she set the basket at their hooves.
“Go on, take ‘em,” she said, nudging the basket toward them. “My partner doesn’t really know how the game works yet. She sorta jumped the gun, y’know what I mean?” She rolled her eyes and offered the stallions a humble smile. “I’ll give you a head start, how does that sound? I’ll say ‘pretty pink princess ponies prancing perpendicular’ twenty five times. That should be enough to make some decent distance, yeah?”
The stallions stood stock still, eyeing Daring with a blend of wariness and worry.
“Pretty pink princess ponies prancing perpendicular,” she said, lifting one feather of her wing. “Pretty pink princess ponies prancing perpendicular.” A second feather joined the first. “Pretty pink princes pron… er, ponies prancing perpederper… perpendicular. Pretty pink princess…”
The three-legged stallion seemed to get the message. He lunged at the basket and scooped it up with his only foreleg, whirling around to fly deeper into the city. His partner shot one last look of concern at Daring before following suit.
“Pretty pink princess ponies prancing perpendicular…”
Rainbow landed hard at Daring’s side. “What are you doing? They’re getting away with the twins!”
“Pretty prink princess… er, ponies prancing perpendicular…”
“… What!?”
Daring laughed. “I’m giving them a bit of a lead. You know, to make it more exciting.”
One of Rainbow’s eyes twitched. “You… you gave the foals back to them?”
“Oh, quit freakin’ out.” She smacked Rainbow on the back. “I’m a professional! I know what I’m doing.”
Rainbow’s shrunken pupils watched the stallions disappear behind a distant skyscraper. “You could have fooled me,” she squeaked.
{-DD-}
Somepony slammed against Ditzy’s side, pushing her into a railing at the edge of an older dock. She leaned against the wooden beam to rest her head on its weathered surface. Twenty minutes of constant jostling had taken its toll on her stamina, and there wasn’t a single blue feather to show for it. She clenched her jaw and glanced over the crowd, dreading her inevitable return to its currents. One of her eyes drifted upward, drawing her attention to an unusual sight.
Two thin stallions were rounding a skyscraper at breakneck speeds. The nearer they came, the surer Ditzy was of their identities. She watched them descend to the northernmost dock. The dark blue pony stumbled through his landing, partly due to a large wicker basket in his mouth, and partly due to his missing leg.
Without another breath, Ditzy rocketed above the harbor’s noisy crowds and hid behind a stack of smelly crates filled with edible seaweed at the edge of the northern dock. She peeked through a space in the bottommost crates with one wobbly eye, straining as hard as she could to catch their actions. To her alarm, the pair moved away from a noisy crew of cargo ponies and stopped at the opposite side of her stack. She pressed her ear to the space instead. They spoke in Haissanic, confirming her assumptions. Having not used the language for almost a decade, Ditzy missed parts of their conversation.
“Should we wait for the ship?” the blue one asked, his voice both low and raspy.
“Not with those two on our tails,” his tan companion replied. “Something blue is too fast to something, and the yellow one is crazy.”
Ditzy resisted the urge to groan.
“Is she on our side or not?” the three-legged stallion asked, catching Ditzy’s full attention.
“I do not know.”
“Why did she return the basket?”
Ditzy’s wings squeezed against her sides.
“I do not speak much Equestrian, but it seemed to me that she was giving us another chance to something something.”
“Do you think she’s tracking us?”
“No. It seemed to her a game.”
To keep from screaming, Ditzy ground her hooves against the salty wood beneath her.
The blue one chuckled. “Then we must take advantage of her misunderstanding.”
“Yes. While she something for us within the city, let us not wait for the passenger ship. You made arrangements for an emergency vessel?”
Ditzy’s next breath caught in her throat. There was a pause in which the three-legged stallion must have nodded.
“Good,” the tan one said.
“Not quite good,” the blue one retorted in a joking tone. “The trip will be far from comfortable.”
“We cannot something another encounter with those mares. Let us leave immediately. Where was it made ready?”
“Here, at the north dock.” The blue stallion thumped his lowered wing against the planks.
They picked up the basket and hurried to the far end of the dock furthest from the city. The anchored walkway became narrower with fewer ponies idling about. Ditzy followed them on quiet hooves, searching for an opportunity to strike and take the basket.
At the very end of the dock, where one more step would drop a pony to the ocean, the conspirators stopped. Ditzy took a filthy mop on the ground between her hooves and pretended to brush salt and grime into the water. The foalnappers gave her only one suspicious glance before nodding to one another. Ditzy’s left eye swiveled helpfully, for once, and allowed her to witness their curious actions without looking up from the mop.
The tan stallion lowered himself onto his belly while the blue one kept watch on the basket. Wriggling to the edge of the dock, the first leaned over the side and stretched his hoof into the water, clenching his teeth at its frigidity. After a few moments of splashing about, his eyes lit up as he caught hold of something. The tendons in his neck protruded as he pulled and grunted at his target’s considerable weight.
“Help me,” he wheezed in Haissanic.
The blue pony gave him a questioning glance before dropping at his partner’s side, dipping his only forehoof into the water. Pressing his wings against the dock for leverage, they managed to hoist a rusty, oblong capsule of sorts from beneath the water.
As it broke the surface inch by inch, Ditzy’s took note of its unfamiliar design: there were no windows, although the outline of a sealable door was visible on its side; it was only large enough to fit three averaged-sized ponies inside, if they didn’t mind getting a bit cozy; the back end, facing Manehattan, was adorned with what looked like a household fan sporting three large propellers inside a wiry cage; and the front end, facing the horizon, extended to a conical point.
“Let us hope there is enough magic in the something to carry us home,” the blue stallion remarked through gritted teeth, heaving the strange vessel onto the dock.
Ditzy’s eye swept back and forth between the metal monstrosity and the unattended wicker basket. The incidental gurgles of a curious foal were emanating from it. Her wings itched to dive forward, take the basket’s handle in her jaws, and hide among the skyscrapers until the next train to Ponyville.
Several thoughts stopped her from acting. Simply taking the foals from the abductors would not solve the problem. The root of the weed would still thrive. Alula had to be questioned.
Then again, the trip to Haissan could be made at any time. Would it not be wise to rescue the foals at such an ample opportunity, return them to their parents, and make the journey with their safety ensured?
Yet Ditzy could not bring herself to make that saving dive. She struggled in her mind, trying to push her innermost thoughts aside, trying to convince herself that the wicked little voice keeping her wings tucked in was wrong.
This is her fault, it said. You can blame this on her. She had the chance to save the twins—she had the basket in her hooves, and she gave it back to them. You can ruin her game. You can remind her how much it hurts to fail.
So instead of grabbing the basket, Ditzy continued to mop at a clean spot of the dock as she watched the foalnappers open the metal vessel’s door. They clambered in quite awkwardly, pulled the cooing basket in behind them, shut the door with a heavy clang, and the ship rolled into the water.
Ditzy dropped the mop and peered over the edge. The water was far from clear, but a faint glow of purplish magic and a sudden eruption of frothy bubbles informed her that the pod’s propeller had started to spin. The trail sped off to the west as the oblong submarine rocketed beneath the ocean, carrying the stolen foals far out of Ditzy’s reach.
Instead of guilt, to her surprise, a cold smile was the mailmare’s only reaction.
{-DD-}
Twilight Sparkle was soaked to the bone by the time she reached Sugarcube Corner.
“Pinkie Pie!” she shouted as soon as she stepped inside. “Where are you?”
The party was waning but there were still enough ponies who gave Twilight unsure glances for her to feel embarrassed.
“Hey, Twilight!” Spike greeted from across the room, waddling up to his caretaker. “What’s up?”
“Spike, where’s Pinkie Pie?” Twilight asked professionally.
The dragon raised an eyebrow. “Uh… upstairs, I think. She went to get more balloons.”
Twilight frowned. “I thought the party was ending.”
“It is,” Spike said with a happy shrug. “But you know Pinkie Pie.”
Twilight could only nod at that. “Excuse me, Spike,” she said, darting between pockets of chatting ponies and bolting up the Corner’s staircase. At the top she noticed Pinkie’s door slightly ajar and barged in uninvited.
“Pinkie Pie!” she yelled, startling the earth pony. The balloon between her hooves slipped away from her mouth and spun around the room with an obnoxious whine for five whole seconds.
“Hi, Twilight!” Pinkie chirped, grabbing an unfilled balloon from an enormous bag dragged halfway out from under her bed. “Wanna help?”
Twilight observed the top of Pinkie’s bed, overflowing with what must have been close to three dozen colorful balloons.
“Did you blow all those up yourself?” she asked, pointing at the horde.
Pinkie nodded, unable to speak due to the half-filled favor dangling from her lips. When it was as large as the others, she made a blur of her hooves that somehow tied a knot in the plastic and tossed it onto the top of the pile.
“Did you need something?” Pinkie asked, eyeing Twilight’s dripping mane with worry. “Did Dinky get home all right?”
“Yes, Dinky’s fine,” Twilight assured her, running a hoof over her matted hair. “And also, yes, I do need something. From you.”
“Oooooh! What is it? How can I help? I love to help my friends!” Pinkie rattled off, picking another empty balloon from the bag.
“I need you to tell me everything you know about that book you gave me.”
“What book?” She started to fill the blue balloon.
“The Complete Works of Bluish Carol.”
Pinkie gasped, sucking in all of the air she had pushed into the balloon. Her body inflated momentarily, making her shining blue eyes bulge in Twilight’s direction. A huge grin pulled at the lips pressed tightly around the neck of the balloon while every drop of air in Pinkie’s lungs siphoned back into it. An excited hum came from the party pony’s throat as the blue ball in her face grew larger and larger, twice the size of any of the balloons behind her.
“Pinkie?” Twilight asked unsurely, watching the balloon continue to grow with equally expanding apprehension.
The blue plastic burst with a terrific crack. The impossible amount of air it had been storing was thrown into Twilight’s face, pushing back her cheeks and eyelids while completely drying out her mane. The force of the blast affected each of the existing balloons as well, causing a chain reaction behind a positively glowing Pinkie Pie that very much resembled fireworks.
“YOU READ IT?” she thundered gleefully above the pops of her balloons.
Twilight waited for the room to settle before answering in a tiny voice. “Not all of it,” she coughed, smoothing down her windswept bangs, “but enough to make me curious.”
Somehow, Pinkie’s smile broadened even more. “Good,” she said, nodding. “That’s very good. Curiosity is key.”
Twilight tilted her head. “Huh?”
Pinkie cleared her throat. “So… what did you read? What do you wanna know?” She couldn’t help from bouncing on the back of her hooves. “Oh, I’m so excited you read it! This makes me so happy!”
Trying to ignore her (hardly) unusual enthusiasm, Twilight presented her first of many queries.
“How did Bluish Carol know about the creatures of Tartarus?”
Pinkie’s excitement dropped with her jaw. “You… you know about that?”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “Pinkie, of course I know about that. I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student.” She narrowed her gaze and took a step toward her friend. “How do you know about that?”
Pinkie’s attitude had shifted dramatically. She bit her lower lip, glancing around the room and shuffling her weight from side to side. “I, uh… that is, I read about… er, the book…”
Twilight closed the gap between them and placed a hoof on Pinkie’s quivering shoulder. “Pinkie, what’s going on? If you know something about Tartarus, or something that Carol knew about Tartarus, you need to tell me. It could be very dangerous, or very important knowledge at the least!”
Pinkie’s pupils widened and she shook her lowered head. “I don’t know much about Tartarus, Twilight. Neither did Bluish.” A modest smile skewed her lips. “But I know about its creatures. I know a lot about its creatures.”
Twilight’s eyebrows knitted. “How? Tell me, Pinkie.”
The earth pony grimaced. “You won’t believe me—”
“At this point, Pinkie, I’ll believe—”
Pinkie interrupted Twilight by grabbing her around the middle and turning her toward the rectangular mirror hung upon the bedroom wall.
“You won’t believe me,” she said again, “unless I show you.”
She began to push Twilight toward the glass, scraping her hooves over the floor.
“What are you doing, Pinkie?” Twilight asked with mild concern.
“Remember what you said earlier, Twilight? About being curious?”
Twilight gulped. “Yes.”
“Well, I need you to be very, very curious right now.”
Her front hooves touched against the base of the wall. Pinkie kept pushing.
“What do you mean?” Twilight implored.
Pinkie pressed a hoof against the back of Twilight’s head and slammed it into the mirror.
“Ow!” Twilight yelped, cringing as her cheek was squished against the pane of glass. “Pinkie, what are you doing?”
“Curiouser, Twilight!” Pinkie said happily. “You’ve got to be curiouser!”
With a surge of magic, Twilight heaved Pinkie Pie onto her bed in the corner. Twilight backed away from the mirror and rubbed her flattened cheek.
“You’re crazy!” she yelled at her frowning friend. “What the hoof was that about?”
Pinkie stumbled off her bed, slipping on some of the remnants of three dozen popped balloons. “I was trying to show you the—”
“Stay away from me!” Twilight yelled, backing through the open doorway. “You’re crazy, Pinkie Pie!”
She turned and galloped down the stairs, leaving Pinkie frowning.
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Pinkie Through the looking glass. What a wonderful book that would be.
Edit: oh hey. A first. That's new.
Dammit Daring, are you an imbecile? What, of course she is. I'm surprised RD didn't react more harshly to the fact that she gave away babies to kidnappers!
Daring you..... :
Daring got what's coming to her, I hope. Seriously, that pony has lost any common sense she once might have had... Here's hoping for some adventure beyond the borders!
Ugh, really, Daring? You're letting your desire for a new book overshadow the importance of RESCUING FOALS? For the love of Celestia, Daring, this isn't a game! Not to Rainbow Dash, and definitely not to Ditzy!
But I can't excuse Ditzy either. She's letting her grudge against Daring impair her judgement. The foals are the primary concern for the moment! You can go talk to the Sultan at any time! Ugh, are all members of the Doo family so... emotionally challenged?!
Also, Pinkie trying to show Twilight her powers doesn't work so well. Then again, for a mare of logic like Twilight, something like going through a mirror isn't feasible... unless she and Twilight have switched bodies.
And Pinkie's mane deflates in 3...2...1
Ya Rainbow is going to call Daring Doo out on that one.
1175241 ...um...everything you said. I really can't do it any better, though I must admit my sheer annoyance at Ditzy getting dragged down to Daring's level. It smacks of moral equivalency. But maybe that's just me.
EDIT: No, actually, I do have one more thing to say. Daring Do, you are evil. I'm not joking at all - what you did was nothing short of a Moral Event Horizon. Handing the rescued children right back to the kidnappers just so you can get more of a thrill out of the chase? That's not just stupid or insane - it's evil.
And you know what else, Daring? Unlike you, Rainbow Dash is a true hero, because she does what you're incapable of doing - the right thing.
1175241
She is a mare of logic in a magical universe who studies magic. "Look I know I way to travel magically through mirrors! Hey you know how I can move so fast and turn up in the strangest places? Yeah, just listen!" would work perfectly unless you're playing Twilight as a moronic straw skeptic. It is less Twilight being unable to understand than Pinkie being unable to deliver a coherent explanation of a complex phenomenon, because she doesn't think like that. She manages perfectly anyway. Hence, the practical demonstration, because Twilight will understand once she sees how things work anyway.
Is it bad that I just god VERY interested in the Twilight and Pinkie sub-plot?
Oh Ditzy, taking the low road and letting the foals get away just to prove that Daring did the same thing and failed. Pot, kettle, black.
Twi seemed to take Pinkie's apparent antics rather harshly, I mean it's Pinkie, I'm sure she's done some weirder things than push Twi into a mirror before.
Gah, stupid adventurer spirit stopping logical decision making! I wanted to slap Daring, and now I kinda want to slap Ditzy, too. Nice commentary on typical 3 Acts, though.
I see, a path only found by the curious. It's just like the path that can only be found if one is lost
1175305
She slammed her face into the mirror which flattened her cheek. Pinkie is many things but rarely actually violent.
Wow, Daring's actions has left me speechless.
I have an insane urge to smash Daring's head into a mirror... a lot harder than Pinkie did Twilight's. It would make me feel better.
... Okay, so the secret to understanding Bluish Carol involves being so obsessed with his work that you are willing to ignore laws of physics... or just that you are willing to ignore laws of physics. Pinkie Pie is proof.
I would expect some negative comments regarding Ditzy, as well, seeing as how she _did_ just let the abductors get away. The idea that it would be better to prevent further danger to them later by allowing them to be kidnappped now is sound, if detached logic, however, her desire to punish her sister is clearly affecting her judgement more than it should be in matters like this.
Finally:
'Go on, take ‘em,” she said, nudging the basket toward them. “My partner doesn’t really know how the game works yet. She sorta jumped the gun, y’know what I mean?” '
*Sound of something breaking*
_What?!_ Now, I can understand that being pressured into fulfilling a commitment you have no capacity to meet can be stressful, that over-exposure and comparison to your own propaganda may lead to delusions of grandeur, and that the threat of those delusions being undermined may even cause substantial panic - but this? This is just _completely insane_! Her reasons for attempting to rescue the children may not exactly be selfless, but _actively endangering them to further her own ends?_ I honestly and truly can't decide if she needs a mental ward or a prison cell!
Daring's being an idiot...
Ditzy's being vindictive...
Pinkie's being Pinkie...
Twilight's being confused...
The only one who's getting anything done is Rainbow Dash!
And we finally see that Ditzy is not the paragon of righteousness that everypony thought.
Celestia that took you forever to get to Ponky.
When Daring took the basket and gave it to the foalnappers, RD should have just snatched it right back and hightailed it back to Ponyville.
-Buy some apples- the train! If AJ could trot from Manehatten to Ponyville as a filly, surely RD can fly back WITH the Cake Twins.
The name of this chapter is PINKIE APPROVED
fc05.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2011/277/e/a/pinkie_pie_approved_by_ambris-d4brtm4.png
Eeyup... Daring's an idiot, and I now want to cause her serious harm.
1175241
If you're referencing a story with the Pinkie Twilight body swap PLEASE FOR THE LOVE OF CELESTIA TELL ME WHAT IT IS!! I read part of it and forgot to favorite it so I can't find it for updates.
Um, if it isn't too much trouble.
Daring Do
Daring you need to get your ass kicked for giving the foals back you idiot, RD should of reacted harsher.
i reckon that by the time that ditzy meets up with RD and daring, Daring will have a black eye
I'm a little confused about everyone getting so mad at Ditzy. It's not like the foalnappers wouldn't have a good guess where she's going even if she did get away from them, and bringing trouble back to Ponyville isn't exactly her style. She knows full well they're not going to hurt the twins.
1175590
The problem is that that isn't her reason, it's her excuse. She easily could have taken the two ponies by surprise and delivered a wonderful beat down (She can still fight and taking them from behind while they are bent over fishing out the sub would have been foals play). Instead she lets them get away so that she can stick it to Daring.
1175271
You just like to see Twilight physically abused. With mirrors.
I was completely onboard until this latest chapter. Leaving children in peril instead of saving them, regardless of what was really in the basket, is psychotic and evil. You took a very funny joke, Daring's desire to be in an adventure so she can write about it, and stretched it past its limit, to the point where it isn't funny anymore, it's just disturbing. I'll keep reading, but that was just appalling.
1175568
This is the background on my phone
Daring, that action doesn't even deserve a facehoof.
1175674 I guess that's where the Dark tag comes in.
I suppose that, when I very first starting writing this story, I wanted it to be a straight up comedy. The more I fleshed out the characters and developed a tragic backstory in my mind, however, it became more of an epic detailing two vindictive sisters who let their pride and thirst for vengeance/superiority overpower their judgment and common sense. Daring isn't evil or insane; she's ridiculously overconfident, ironically naive, and overall confused between herself and the Daring she created for the books.
But also, at this point, I wanted Ditzy to do something so dramatically wrong that the readers realize, as Honey Mead said, how imperfect she is. I didn't want all the hate to go in Daring's direction; Ditzy has severe weaknesses as well.
The Comedy tag will stay because, as well as having several humorous moments, this story will have a happy ending in which all parties get EXACTLY what they deserve. I suppose the adventure is to discover who truly deserves what.
So sorry to disturb you. I hope the succeeding chapters prove more enjoyable.
So the sultans planing on using the twins to get into tartarus for some odd reason than should make for a good book
P.s. that is one strong mirror
...You're good. You're very good.
Really, I don't think Daring is evil--she's just driven and perhaps slightly insane. Ditzy isn't much better.
I think they both know the kids aren't really in danger, since Taloola or whoever isn't exactly evil? And they assume he's behind it.
My rage at Daring Do for letting the kids go.... So much angry.
And was Pinkie trying to show Twilight how to break the 4th wall? Hmmm, interesting...
1175941 I hate to say this on your birthday, of all days, but...sorry, I'm not buying it. Daring's gone way too far, and Ditzy's action came out of left field. That doesn't bode well.
1175941
this is a good story and an excellent chapter. You can of course blame Ditzy for not rescuing the foals when she had the chance, but inaction is a much lesser sin then the deliberate act of betrayal like Daring did.
Of course it's bad, but I can understand if she is bitter. the scene with Ditzy in the docks reminds me of the movie "Män som hatar kvinnor", you know where Lisbet Salander have just chased the mass rapist/murder after he tries to kill Blomkvist. His car have tumbled over and caught fire. He ask for her help and she just watch him burn.
It just reminded me of that scene. Anyway, I can really recomend that movie but don't watch the American version "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" that movie is average at best and truly sucks compared to the original version.
1175941
And what Ditzy deserves is a chewing out for a) idealizing her father and b) letting it get personal.
Curiouser and curiouser. Oh you!
A wonderful story all told. An enjoyable read at exploring what kind of character Derpy could be, and this is a particularly interesting interpretation. The concept is wonderful,and the characters written fairly well.
My one big caveat is how unsympathetic you've made Daring Doo thus far, especially with this chapter. It's good in a way to show parallels to Ditzy here, but thus far you haven't given us any good reasons to like or relate to Daring- and that's a bad idea. I know as a writer how fun it can be to lead readers on and plan a great unveiling (in this case, their backstory), but I feel like something substantive- whether a part of the backstory or not- needs to be given to Daring's character so that she stops being what feels like a moral antagonist and starts being more a shade of gray, so to speak. You did that decently with Ditzy in this chapter, but Daring is just coming off as totally despicable (not even including this chapter), and I don't think that's what you want.
The sub-plots are also somewhat head-scratching, though good and not problematic thus far. However, I feel like this Pinkie Pie-Twilight thing needs to relate more to the main plot soon, or else the escapade will seem like a pointless author shout-out that belongs in a different story. You haven't really structured this as a more convuluted slice-of-life story but as a distinct narrative, and I think you should try to keep to that. If this isn't going to connect strongly (and importantly) to the main plot, then perhaps it should be a side-story. Though perhaps monsters in Tartarus may connect to the foal-knapping; which would be alright.
But, perhaps overly critical of me- it's often easy to talk about things you don't like more than things you do with these sorts of things
I love this story and I eagerly await more. Keep at it.
Really, Daring? Really?
Though, honestly, I'm not surprised. The way Daring's been going on about the "thrill of the chase" for the past few chapters makes this not particularly surprising. She wants her chase scene for the book. That's always been what's most important to her, not saving the foals.
And then there's Ditzy. Again, I'm not surprised here. Her anger at Daring (and justified anger, too) has been building up for quite some time now. That she would do something like this to humiliate Daring does not surprise me in the least. That said, her action is not any less excusable.
And for the Twilight/Pinkie sub-plot... I'm quite curious as to how this is going to fit in with the main plot. Do go on.
And now, after all that, I have one request:
Can I kill Daring? Pleeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeease?
Daring you moron
I just realized this, but I bet the Hissanians took the wrong foals. Ditzy must have realized that Alula wanted his daughter, so he had his guys come take her, but they didn't know exactly who they were looking for, so they took the first foals they found.
Did Daring....just....give up the lives of 2 foals for a BOOK?!?!?! Ditzy Doo now has my permission to kill her sister. I mean, who in their right mind would do that?
I think the main reason that everyone is so distraught over Daring's actions is the fact that they're dealing with foals here. It's almost as if Daring and Ditzy are, most likely subconsciously, treating this entire situation as if they were chasing after another stolen priceless artifact rather than the lives of two babies.
With regards to The character of Daring, I don't believe that you created her to be liked or even to be truly relatable. To me, she's a character that is meant to be hated for some purpose only you know, to be mentally broken in a detailed and dramatic fashion worthy of the Dark tag later on in the story only to, in due time, pick up the pieces and come out a better mare for it eventually reintegrating herself into the family and realizing the crazy pony she was. But that's just the way my mind works. As of right now, I agree that Daring almost needs to be locked in some sort of mental institution for identity crisis or the like because it seems like she has convinced herself that she is the exaggerated character she created for her books.
All in all I love everything the way it is now and nothing should be changed. Daring is the equivalent of pure evil at the moment, Ditzy's actions are being called into question as well, Rainbow is the only one with her perceptions of right and wrong intact, although I will say there is a fog in front of her eyes called idolatry (or something like it if you remove the worshiping connotation implied with that word) that I hope will soon be lifted. I'm definitely looking forward to where this goes.
Well, that's it from me. I'm no critic but sometimes I just enjoy giving my thoughts and opinions.
Now, how to properly end this obscenely long comment...
Oh, I know!
Diu Nocte!
Vivat Novus Lunaris Reipublicae.
1178122
After you kill her, can you raise her from the dead so I could kill her? I'm not as mad at Ditzy though, due to Daring driving her to Tartarus and back in a couple of days.
1179309
If I somehow gain the ability to raise her from the dead, I will do so frequently so I can kill her repeatedly. You are more than welcome to join in
My goodness. This one is shaping up to be the new Past Sins!
...Take that as you will. I mean it as a complement.