Frames of Folly

by Ringcaat

Frame Device

Author's Note:

This story was written shortly after the Season 3 finale, "Magical Mystery Cure." I didn't post it here at the time because I was embarrassed by how utterly incomplete it is. But embarrassment can only keep something contained for four and a quarter years, so it seems! I think it's funny--just don't expect more than three chapters.

Frames of Folly
A collection of comedic MLP oneshots.

---

"o/`You've come... such a long, long way..." crooned Princess Celestia, immortal custodian of the heavens and the brightest figure in Twilight's life. "...And I've watched you... from that very first day... o/`"

It was quite possibly the most intense peak experience of Twilight's life, and she'd had quite a few. She walked down a seemingly endless causeway of drifting images, each one highlighting a salient moment from the last few years. Her eyes were wide and her steps were light. Something =huge= was coming; she could feel it had been coming for a long time.

"o/` ...To see how you might grow... to see what you might do..."

In one of her history books, which she treasured for the fact that it included folklore she couldn't find anywhere else, Twilight had read a quotation stating that Celestia only sings very rarely―once every century or so, on average. When she does sing... you know something very, very special is about to happen.

"...To see what you've been through... and all the ways you've made me proud of you. o/`"

Twilight didn't know whether the folk wisdom was true, but she wanted to believe it. She raised her head and grinned, wanting very badly to believe it! Immersing herself in the wonder of the moment, Twilight gazed at a floating frame in which she and Pinkie Pie were in the library, wearing colorful umbrellas. While she vaguely recalled the occasion, her ordinarily meticulous mind failed to dredge up the details. Instead, Twilight just marveled at the scene's beautiful camaraderie; that was the measure of the immense awe she felt.

Pinkie Pie climbed from the frame, her smile gone and her body language nervous. As the earth pony leapt from the image of the library into the midst of the aquacyan starscape, she gasped, her hair poofing out even more wildly than usual and nearly dislodging her personal umbrella. But then she saw Twilight and regained her grin fully.

"Pinkie! What are you doing here?!" asked Twilight.

"Looking for you, silly! What are you doing here?! We thought you were dead!!" shouted Pinkie.

Twilight's mood was shattered into confusion. "Dead??"

Ahead, Princess Celestia was still striding. "o/` It's time now... for a new cha―" She stopped singing and looked back. "What is going on back th―Pinkie Pie?!"

"Hi, your Highness," said Pinkie humbly before turning back to Twilight. "Yes, dead! I mean, you did just make a bunch of huge energy beams go all SCHWoOooSH and EXPLODE into a poof of scorched air!! Poor Spike is crying his heart out! His only consolation is that you didn't explode twice, but I'm not sure how much that helps!"

"Oh no! Princess―is that true?"

Celestia didn't seem happy at her song having being interrupted, but she also looked aggrieved. "It's certainly possible. I'll go and let them know you're unharmed, Twilight. Don't... go through any... major changes without me."

Twilight stood baffled. "Major changes? What are you―"

"Pinkie Pie?" requested Celestia. "Please keep Twilight distracted until I get back."

"Will do!" chimed Pinkie.

With that, Celestia concentrated for a moment and vanished into a whirlwind of gentle white smoke, leaving no trace.

"Now that's the classy way to disappear!" announced Pinkie Pie. "Nopony would mistake that for a grisly death. You could learn something from Princess Celestia!"

"I do," replied Twilight reverently. "I learn from her as much as I can."

"I mean, I guess the fact that your explosion mark looked just like your cutie mark helped. It made Rarity think you might be okay after all. But I've never really seen anypony explode before. Maybe EVERYPONY leaves a scorch mark shaped like their cutie mark when they explode! That's a kind of horrible thought when you think about it. It's like―BAM! Instant headstone!"

Twilight winced. "Do they really think I died, Pinkie?"

"Well, Fluttershy said she was sure you were all right, but I'm not sure she was really was sure!" Pinkie pranced up onto her hindlegs, leaning against a moving image as it passed. "I think it might have been one of those things that ponies just SAY! I know how that feels. I just say stuff all the time."

Twilight resisted the urge for a bon mot. "But how did you get here, Pinkie?"

"The same way you did! I mean, kind of. I stood the same way you were standing, and read the same spell you read, and I tried to make it sound just as meaningful as you did, only it didn't quite work, probably 'cause I'm not a unicorn, and all these weird windows went sailing by." She waved a hoof at the two rows of images across from her. "Only they were all backwards, and their colors were all reversed, so I was, like, this icky dark green, and Applejack was sad and blue, and you don't want to KNOW what Fluttershy―"

"You cast a spell, Pinkie?!"

"Well, I think I kind of used the leftover energy from your spell, really! I mean I can't think what else it could be because I totally haven't been reading forbidden books on how to redirect earth pony magic into traditional talent-based magical channels ever since I moved to Ponyville! I tend to read comics, instead!"

Twilight blinked. "So... so what did you do, then?"

"Well, I had Rainbow give me a boost and I climbed through! And then I was SO glad to see you safe and sound that I forgot to be amazed at how fantabulously AMAZING this place is!!" The pink mare twirled around, bouncing off one of the frames. "LOOK at all these pictures! There's me! And there's you! And there's me again! All the ones we saw in the library were pictures of the library, but here you've got pictures of, like everything we've ever done!"

"I know! It's incredible, isn't it?!"

Pinkie looked frightened. "Do you suppose we might really be dead, Twilight? I mean... this place isn't like anyplace I ever saw. What are all these glowing things? Are these supposed to be stars? Stars aren't supposed to look like this!"

"I think it's the Twilight Realm," said Twilight. "When I was a very young filly, I used to have dreams something like this. A place where it's never day, and never night... but the stars are close... always close around you." She turned to regard the panorama with reverence.

"And this floor! exclaimed Pinkie, stepping with diagonal pairs of legs. "It's totally invisible and I can't even feel anything! What are we even walking on?"

"I don't know!" admitted Twilight. "But I don't think we're dead, Pinkie. Princess Celestia told me I'd done something that had never been done before."

Pinkie gasped. "Maybe you did explode twice!!"

"Or... or maybe by finishing Starswirl the Bearded's spell, I was able to perform a spell that had never been done before." That seemed a lot more satisfying to Twilight.

"Could be!" chirped Pinkie. "I wonder what's keeping the princess!"

"Maybe the others have a lot of questions," said Twilight, pacing along the causeway. "I know I do." She happened to glance at her own shadow. "Wait. Why does my shadow have wings?"

Pinkie pronked straight up. "TWILIGHT!! Stop noticing things! Princess Celestia told me to distract you, remember?"

"Yes, but why? Is there something I'm not supposed to―"

"OATMEAL!!" shouted Pinkie. Twilight stared at her. Pinkie stared back, eyes bugged. Twilight continued to stare.

"Um. Well, you've done it. You were so completely Pinkie just now that I forgot what we were talking about."

Pinkie beamed with pride. "Thanks, Twilight! I think you're super-duper too! Oh hey! While we're waiting for Princess Celesti-besti to get back, how about we watch some of these moving picture thingies?"

"Sure!" agreed Twilight. "I get the feeling I'm supposed to reflect on all the seminal moments of my life. Which may indicate that I've reached the endpoint of a major arc of personal development, meaning that Princess Celestia is about to―"

"Hey Twilight, look at this! I can bend these things!" Sure enough, Pinkie had seized one of the floating frames and was flopping it back and forth like a flimsy baking sheet.

"Pinkie, I don't think you're supposed to do that!"

"Oh, no? Then how come it changes what's going on in the scene? Look, here's you getting out of the balloon on your first day in Ponyville!" Pinkie flexed the frame back and forth. "See? Train... no train! Train... no train! The ground even changes colors!"

Twilight frowned. "Did they have the train yet in Ponyville when I arrived? I don't remember."

"I wonder what other fun stuff I can do!" exulted Pinkie, grabbing another frame and whirling it around a central fulcrum. It spun in space with a clacking sound, eventually landing more or less upside-down. The ponies walking on what was now the ceiling of Town Hall collapsed to what was now the floor with a collective whooof. "Oops," said Pinkie. "Oh well, I think it looks better that way!"

"Pinkie, I really don't think―" said Twilight, walking over.

"Aw, Twilight, don't be such a sourpony. We've got to pass the time somehow!" Pinkie's face poinked with sudden inspiration. "I know! Let's watch every single one of them in order, except we'll shake them up and see what happens!"

Twilight sighed. "Well, if you insist..." She had to admit she was curious whether these floating images had any lessons for her... and whether they could survive Pinkie's enthusiasm.

Comments

[Crimson Dawn]

Hmm I wonder if Pinkie got in there too (perhaps by casting a spell or not) will she become an alicorn and what would that be like?

I really like this idea it is too bad you do not want to make a full story out of it anymore but thank you for posting what you have.

[Ringcaat]

8415569
I never intended for Pinkie to also become an alicorn. She was just the best at breaking the fourth wall, so she seemed like the natural companion for Twilight. Glad you liked the idea! If you want more on Pinkie as a potential princess, I recommend the second appendix to my story The Combinatorics Project--she muses on it briefly near the beginning.