Prince of Errors

by David Silver

32 - Pinkie Promise

The prince took a timid half-step away. He had seen behind her eyes,and she hadn't made him promise not to speak of it. Not that he had really gotten into much detail about what he had experienced... Still... What little he had assembled of the Book of Social Law implied he shouldn't just... rush. "I did."

"Tell me about it." Maud abandoned all else, all her attention on him, even if her voice remained even and placid. "What did you see?"

"Would you..." His eyes went for the ceiling, suddenly so fascinating. "--want me to tell ponies what I saw when I was you?"

She shrugged softly. "I wouldn't care."

Assuming she wouldn't care was easy, but he... felt that was untrue. She did care, about a lot of things. "You're just saying that."

Maud paused, slowly blinking. "I'm not sure I like this."

That was more honest. "Like what?"

She pointed at him. "You're in my head. I want to know what you saw. I know Pinkie won't care. She loves people talking about her, so long as it's about nice things. Did you see nice things?"

Good things... "She is very in tune with her body, more than basically any other pony I met. She can move in ways... She can grab things effortlessly, and even her mane is a part of that. She is completely at one with everything that makes her up and it's a... liberating feeling." He raised a grey hoof and wobbled it limply. "I barely feel like these are mine at times, but when I was Pinkie, I was all of Pinkie. It was amazing."

"That sounds like her," she placidly agreed with a nod. "But that isn't really in here." She reached up and tapped her own head lightly. "What are her thoughts like? You saw mine, how are they different?"

He frowned a little, thinking about the two in comparison. "When I was you... I was trapped behind steel wool. What I wanted to say or feel couldn't get out around it. When I was Pinkie, what I felt just came out almost like it was pushed out. I really cared what other people thought of me too, now that I think back on it..." He rubbed his cheek softly. "Oh, but she didn't... actually have the book."

Maud cocked a brow high. "The book?" She half-nodded. "Oh, the social book? How does she not have that? She is very social, all the time."

"I know the difference," assured the prince with two raised hooves. "She doesn't always know the rules, or why ponies do what they do, but she can't hold what she's feeling back, and she cares what they think of her too much, so she just pushes ahead anyway with a big smile. It works, usually, but sometimes it really doesn't." He could remember episodes where Pinkie's rush to defuse tense moments exploded in her face or even hurt people around her. "But she's ready to get up on her hooves and try again."

Maud sank to her haunches, staring at him with her intense neutrality. She was perfectly still for a long and silent time, watching him, or perhaps thinking and just happening to be facing him. "Hmm... So she wins... by just trying over and over. She is very persistent." She added an inflection, breaking her monotone a moment. "That... makes sense. I don't think I could do that; it's not how I do it, but I think I understand my sister a little better." She rose to her hooves. "Thank you."

He stood up too, watching her turn away towards her gem pile. Was the discussion over? "You're welcome, glad it helped. Uh, thanks, for offering a place."

Maud turned an ear towards him but was otherwise unresponsive, resuming her work with her gems with the next one gently picked up.

"But I think I'll pass. You're nice, don't get me wrong, um, but you're also involved."

"Are you attracted to me?" She didn't turn towards him or pause her work.

What a question! "Oh, um, you're a very pretty mare, but I more meant that you two will want some alone time and there I'll be, in the way."

Maud faintly nodded her head between soft hammer strikes, shaping her gem. "We wouldn't mind, but alright."

Some part of him could see that, the two casually ignoring him even as they did things couples do, not at all put off by his presence. That didn't make it much better. "I'm, uh, glad you found him."

Maud paused. She set down the gem she was working on and turned her head towards the prince. "What made you say that?" she asked in her usual placid tones.

"You two are... uh... good for each other. You complete each other." He pressed his forehooves together awkwardly. "Two wildly uneven puzzle pieces that fit together. It's... really good. I'm happy for you, and him." Jealous too? Yeah, maybe that too. If she didn't already have such a good match, he wouldn't have minded hanging around Maud more. A person to just be quiet around and passively enjoy the presence of? That sounded kind of nice.

"I like him too." She turned back to her gem and plucked it up with a hoof easily, showing suction control. "Will you be upset if I say hello to you later?"

"N-no! No. We're friends now, I think." He set a hoof on his chest. "You say hello whenever you want, just don't be surprised when I'm surprised at first."

"What should I call you?"

He opened his mouth to reply before it hit him flatly. "You almost got me."

"I had to try." She didn't sound upset about it, flat as usual. "Have a nice day."

It was time to go, and he felt better about doing it. He started for the exit. "Thanks for bringing me here, this was good, I think." There was no reply given on the way out, but none was really needed. He left with a smile, and a new friend or two.

---

"Behold!" Trixie raised her hooves into the air as the rope on the stage lifted with them, only to suddenly become flowers that spread across it rapidly. "I am the master of life itself!"

The prince watched her performance from in the crowd. Ponies sat all around him, but none of them really cared he was there, which was fairly normal for him. He wasn't much paying attention to that. It was time for Trixie. He softly clopped his hooves in appreciation of her trick, wondering if it was magic magic, or stage magic.

"For Trixie's next amazing feat to defy reality itself, she will want an assistant." Her eyes scanned over the crowd. "She will add color to the colorless, so if somepony with a dull pattern would kindly step forward?"

"Me?" he said without thinking about it. It was enough. His shields were stripped away for that one precious moment.

"You!" With a glowing horn, she yanked him up to his hooves and began drawing him closer. "Don't be shy, you're absolutely perfect for Trixie's new act of bedazzlement! Everyone put their hooves together for this brave volunteer."

The crowd stomped their approval as the prince walked in an awkward combination of steps and being pulled in Trixie's magic. Even his silence wasn't good enough. He was her assistant, so it didn't matter how boring he was or how much he wanted to be left alone. He was part of her act. His blandness may even have added to things, making her more dazzling in comparison.

"Oh yes, perfect." She set him down in the middle of the stage. "Now tell Trixie and the crowd, what is your favorite color? And don't say grey." She rolled her eyes mildly at the idea of turning a grey pony grey again.

He liked grey just fine! "Um... blue?"

"Blue it is!" She stomped the ground and a shower curtain sprang up, blocking his view of the audience and her just as they couldn't see him any longer. "Behold as I infuse this pony with more blue than anypony should have to endure." She began weaving her hooves in odd patterns, reared up on two legs as she made her magical motions with a glowing horn. "Behold as Trixie draws on all the blue in the world!"

He didn't feel anything at first. Nothing seemed to be happening. Was she doing it wrong? He was still pretty... oh. He felt blue suddenly sweep over him, but it wasn't her magic, it was his. He was a deep and vibrant blue from nose to tail, fulfilling what Trixie was expecting to see. His wings suddenly gave a flap and he realized she had seen him as a pegasus, so he was suddenly a pegasus, a blue pegasus, just as she expected. At least she had thought he was a stallion, so he remained that.

Trixie made a sudden parting motion with her hooves, drawing away the curtain to reveal the very blue prince. "Ta da!" she cried, only opening her eyes a moment later. "Oh, it worked. I mean of course Trixie's spell worked! Trixie practices these things to perfection." She nodded with building confidence. "How do you feel, now-blue pony? Would you step forward?"

The prince stepped forward, his wings shuffling softly, feeling eager to be used. He smiled lightly, some of his internal fog lifted. Was that what Trixie had imagined for him? "Hello everypony."

"Behold!" called out Trixie, waving a hoof at him. "That dull grey pony is now a happy blue pony, reunited with his favorite shade, he's not dull and forgettable anymore."

That was nonsense, the prince thought to himself, but its thought sort of worked. He had stepped into the form of a blue version of himself without the usual shields. "Where did you learn that trick?"

Trixie wagged the end of a hoof slowly. "Ah ah ah, that's a secret and Trixie does not disclose her secrets. You've been fantastic, go on back to your seat now." She pointed down into the crowd and she went right on to the next trick as if he was never there in the first place.

His shields were down, that was just Trixie being Trixie. She could screen someone out if she wanted to... He stepped down in a soft hop. Other ponies were looking at him, watching him at least half as intently as Trixie was being watched.

"Is that paint?" asked Doctor Horse, leaning in to give a sniff, but there was no paint to smell.

Rose shook her head softly. "I didn't know Trixie knew that much actual magic, nice. I like my color though." She ran a hoof over her soft tannish fur and her dark red mane. "You look nice though."

The prince felt a blush coming on, but he wasn't paralyzed. Whatever personality Trixie had imagined he had didn't freeze up. "I'm happy with grey, but blue isn't bad either." He raised a blue hoof into view. "Oh, you're Rose, right?"

"Roseluck," she corrected with a smile. "I don't think I've run into you before."

"Nor I," agreed Doctor Horse, completely unaware of his failed attempt to cure the prince of the red stickler situation. "What is your name, good sir?"

"Jacob." The prince collapsed, out cold. The mentality given to him by Trixie had reacted before he had time to consider what he was saying. Color fled him in a rush, and he was a slumbering grey pony.

Doctor Horse turned back to Trixie's performance, clopping at it, but Roseluck did not. Her eyes were on Jacob's fallen form, a concerned look on her face. "Jacob," she whispered to herself, the name not leaving her. The name felt... important. "Let's get you somewhere safe."

She abandoned watching the magic show, instead gently picking up the fallen one and taking them away. The other flower ponies noticed her efforts and joined in relocating the stallion.

Author's Note:

Another layer of the shield is worn down. Thanks Trixie? With an assist from Roseluck and Doctor Horse.

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Comments

[badninja]

Now I wonder if Trixie always knew he was there? Now I wonder if that is his real name or holds some importance.

[Dravkwn]

We have a name people!

[flutterboot]

So they can see through it? Nice.

[Emtu]

Pinkie's rush to diffuse tense moments

defuse

[David Silver]

9554193
Fixfix

[Liqwidice]

OMG, he's been adopted by a herd and doesn't have any idea of what he's about to wake up to.

[borgvicugna]

He could say a pun so old it's probably a typo, "I think I'm feeling a little horse." ^dOU^Ob

[Daremo]

9554263
Although it could be argued that diffusing a tense moment could also defuse it.

[_Kenzu_]

"What is your name, good sir?"

"Jacob." The prince collapsed, out cold.

we finally have a name~ Also, now even a random background pony can notice him? I feel that we're getting close the curse breaking, buuuuuut now I'm wondering if the curse will go silently...

also
9554863
uh oh, flower pony herd kidnapping him?

(just had to follow the first vid up )

[Warrior Kitten]

Well that was...... sudden,

[_Kenzu_]

9555351
Also, how much do you want to bet Roseluck and/or the other flower ponies will overreact if they can notice both his wings and horn?

[Zapper Frost]

She abandoned watching the magic show, instead gently picking up the fallen one and taking them away. The other flower ponies noticed her efforts and joined in relocating the stallion.

[tsaukpaetra]

Darn. We had our money on Jack.
What was with the last chapter then?

[Vaalintine]

I have to say, even if they've made progress it doesn't feel very good. Like you're pulling someone out of their shell by skinning them. Still waiting for the turning point where its all being done for what he wants, not what others want of him or say is good for him.

[KvAT]

9753493
The hardest shell to break is one where what you want is to follow what people want.