Vignette Eight - Too Many Pinkie Pies
Twilight Sparkle had hoped for a quiet, peaceful day of practicing new spells. What she hadn’t anticipated was a growing crowd of ponies around Golden Oak Library, all of them coming to her with complaints about the same thing. “Okay everypony, please, let’s calm down and…!”
“Calm down?!” Rarity shouted in indignation. “I just had a Pinkie hurricane raging through my shop! It’s going to take forever to clean everything!”
“And they trashed our critter picnic,” Fluttershy remarked bitterly.
“And my chillaxing at the lake!” Rainbow Dash complained.
“And the barn raisin’!” Applejack shouted.
More angry shouts of complaint echoed through the crowd, which did little to help Twilight’s nerves. “Everypony please, hang on while I try to figure something out!” She dashed back into the library and closed the door behind her to find Spike and Owlowiscious already at work trying to find a solution. “Spike, we need to…!”
“Track down something related to that legend Pinkie Pie mentioned and hopefully find a way to deal with all these Clonie Pies! Already on it!” As he finished pulling books from one shelf, the young drake noticed an odd compartment in the back. “Huh. Never noticed this before.” He pressed a horseshoe-shaped button, and a panel slid upwards to reveal a book inside. He pulled it out and read the cover, then called, “Twilight! I think I have something!” She took it up with her magic as he wondered aloud, “No idea why it’d be in that compartment, though. I mean, wouldn’t you want to warn somepony about something like this?”
“Aha!” Twilight either didn’t hear his question or willfully ignored it in light of the greater problem as she called out in triumph. “‘The Legend of the Mirror Pond’! ‘Also known as the Mirror Pool, the magic of this spring allows any pony to create a duplicate of themselves when they recite a specific verse. Care must be taken, however, lest the duplicates end up creating duplicates of themselves.’”
“Hoo-hoo.” She looked up to find her Number Two Assistant giving her a raised brow and waving a wing as if encouraging her to move along.
“Right, sorry.” Twilight skimmed the entry in the book. “Okay, good news. All of those clones of Pinkie Pie aren’t true living beings. They’re semi-sapient magical constructs, capable of rudimentary learning but little more than an exaggerated approximation of the original’s core traits and personality. And the more copies are made, the greater those traits are exaggerated.”
“So, can we get rid of them?” Spike prodded anxiously.
“They’ll break down with time, but not soon enough to satisfy that mob outside or prevent any further chaos in Ponyville. Thankfully, there’s a spell here that will let me disperse their magic and send it back where it came from.” Her eyes widened in alarm. “Oh dear.” Before Spike could ask, she looked up and explained, “The dispersal spell could seriously injure any real pony that it’s used on. If I use it on the real Pinkie by mistake…”
“Okay, let’s stop right there, that’s all the information I need.” The less horror they dwelt upon, the better, as Spike made his way to the door and called, “Let’s go find the real Pinkie, make sure she’s separated from all the clones, and then make with the dispersing.”
They opened the door back onto the crowd, which thankfully hadn’t grown any since they’d retreated into the library, and Twilight called, “Does anypony here have a way that we can tell the real Pinkie Pie apart from all of the duplicates?”
The crowd looked amongst themselves and debated that question until a Pinkie Pie rushed to the head of the crowd. “Twilight! I gotta talk to you! I need your help!”
“Excuse me, whoever you are…” Another Pinkie Pie took up position at Twilight’s right and mirrored her gestures as she continued, “But I’m not talking to any of you Pinkies unless you’re the real Pinkie.”
“Well will you listen instead? Please?” The first Pinkie dropped to her knees, eyes wet with tears as she begged, “I’m really sorry about all of this! I didn’t want to miss out on any fun with my friends, but instead, making all of these extra Pinkies has just ruined all their fun!”
“Hey! Did somepony say ‘fun’?!” As if summoned by some unearthly force, the crowd of Pinkies joined the already alarmed crowd, each one chanting the word ‘Fun!’ repeatedly in excitement and seemingly popping out of thin air.
“Noooooo!” The first Pinkie screamed as she cried out in anguish. “Make it stop! MAKE IT STOP!”
Twilight looked about at the spectacle before her, unsure what to do or where to start, until her eyes went back to the first Pinkie, teary-eyed and curled up in a fetal position with her mane going limp. Inspiration struck, and her horn glowed as she readied a spell. With a confident grin on her face, Twilight shot a burst of magic at the crying, screaming Pinkie, who promptly vanished.
That caused all of the other Pinkies to pause, and one tilted her head curiously. “Where did she go?”
“Did she go somewhere fun?” Another asked.
“She’s playing a game!” Twilight declared. “We all are! It’s called ‘Hide and Seek!’, and the goal is for all the Pinkies to hide in places all over Ponyville and try not to be found by me and my friends! The last Pinkie to be found gets a special prize!”
That prompted a gasp from all of the Pinkies before one declared, “Ooh! I like prizes!”
“I do too! Prizes are fun!”
“Betcha can’t find me!”
All of the Pinkies then rapidly scattered in every direction, leaving the townsfolk to turn to a grinning Twilight in frustration as one mare scowled. “How does that solve the problem?”
Twilight stepped aside and opened the door to Golden Oak Library as a Pinkie Pie stepped out with a bewildered look on her face. “It let me find the real Pinkie Pie. As much as she likes having fun, she hates having fun at the expense of somepony else’s enjoyment.”
“Omigosh Twilight, you’re right!” The lone Pinkie gave Twilight a warm hug and declared, “You saw how miserable I was about this, and how not-miserable all the other Pinkies were, and you figured it out!”
“Exactly.” Twilight conjured up a necklace and put it around her friend’s neck. “Now that we’ve determined that you’re the genuine article, we can round up all the duplicates and send them back where they came from.”
“Yay!” Pinkie stopped, then frowned. “Oh no, now I feel bad for all those poor Clonie Pies. I mean yeah, they caused trouble, but it’s not like they were doing it to be mean. They just don’t know any better.”
“Nopony said they were bad, Pinkie, but Ponyville can’t afford to have all of ‘em running around.” Applejack emerged from the crowd alongside the rest of her friends. “One Pinkie Pie is special, but more than that is just too much of a good thing.”
“Especially when the one Pinkie Pie knows how to have fun the right way.” Rainbow Dash added with a grin.
“Awww.” She then stopped and reasoned, “But where am I gonna hide until all the Clonie Pies are caught?”
Twilight grinned. “I think I know a place.”
-
“…And that’s why Twilight sent me here, and since I’m here, I think I’d better give you the Friendship Lesson that I learned in pony.”
Princess Celestia giggled, glad for the company as she enjoyed her afternoon tea in the palace. “A wise decision. Go ahead, Pinkie Pie.”
After dramatically clearing her throat, Pinkie declared, “I’ve learned that it’s great to have fun, but it’s even greater to have great friends. And having lots of friends means that that sometimes, you have to make choices about who you’ll spend your time with. But that’s okay, because good friends will always give you lots of chances to have fun, so even if you miss out on one thing, it’s never for very long. And I’ve also learned that trying to do too much, even if it’s having fun, can sometimes lead to more trouble than it’s worth.”
“Two worthy lessons if I’ve ever heard them.” She took up a teacup and idly wondered, “It’s been almost a half-hour since you arrived, however. I’m a little surprised that Twilight and the others haven’t finished collecting all of your duplicates by now.”
Pinkie rolled her eyes. “Well, in their defense, I’m really good at Hide and Seek. I’d say give it another half-hour, and if Twilight hasn’t sent you a message, then go to Ponyville and bring the biggest piñata you can find.” She then produced a business card and said, “There’s a candymaker in Ponyville who’d certainly love the business.”
Celestia laughed as she accepted the card, though something told her it wouldn’t be needed. Her student and her friends were nothing if not capable, and this seemed well within their ability to handle.
And if not, well, she was always up for an excuse to get out of the palace.
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Good work with this Vignette as always. Felt like a good expansion of the original episode and a nice clarification of some pesky possible implications of those pink pony duplicates. (Yay alliteration!)
Same here. I know it's a blooper reel and not "canon" but I do get a kick out of the EG Pinkie and Canon Pinkie swapping places. It makes a frightening amount of sense.
Yay! A new chapter/Vignette!
And a most excellent one, as always!
A bit short, compared to some of your other chapters, but sometimes short is all you need.
Looking forward, with much anticipation, to the next one.
9842622
I certainly don't mind the idea that the two Pinkies are periodically swapping places for one reason or another. It also wouldn't surprise me if no one's caught on yet.
9842623
Sometimes short is a good thing. And as for future installments, I suggest marking your calendar for October 31st. Next Vignette is due then.
Excellent job on this latest installment. Yeah, the characterizations and general wrap-up were all well done in all the right places. I especially liked the bit of deductive reasoning involved in spotting the real Pinkie BEFORE targeting the clones. And good explanation for the measures taken concerning the clones too. As for the real Pinkie's chat with Celestia, that was a downright wonderful touch.
Next one is on Halloween/Nightmare Night, huh? That would be just under three weeks after the actual series officially ends its run (not to mention the date gives us a clue as to what episode the Vignette is going to be an addition to, unless I'm overthinking things, which IS possible.). :-D
9843295
I feel no shame over having a character solve a problem with clear, logical thinking. Especially if said character should be capable of such things.
The series might be ending, but I doubt the fanfiction ever will. And I wouldn't say that you're overthinking things.
This was a LOT more cuter than the original episode and resolved a buttload of those moral issues too. Good job
Wonder what would happen if Pinkie and Celestia teamed up to bake a cake?
11046886
I suspect the cake would be both delicious and eaten very quickly...though how much by which pony remains up for debate.
That certainly would have been easier than the test. Considering the fakes couldn't go long without thinking about fun and being distracted.
11594589
Yeah, I get the feeling Season Three didn't just suffer from a lower episode count. It suffered from poor story editing.