Chapter 10: A Little Pushy
To say the morning didn’t start all that great would be an understatement.
Granted, it was probably due to my perspective on things, plus just anomalous feelings that just are. It was mainly from the limp pink mane that swayed into view as I walked towards the smell of breakfast. It was a sign that even more things were out of my control, especially as Pinkie seemed trigger happy with the driver swapping. Maybe I had control issues, but I felt that was just a little bit warranted considering all of everything rode on Pinkie living a nice happy life. Which was inching up the difficulty rating a bit too quickly for my liking.
Now, instead of just fearing social interaction, I had to fear ponies noticing, or worse, Pinkie being put on the spot and being seen as weird. She didn’t even seem to care what would happen, just throwing me onto the spot. I would need to adapt to secure her happiness better. And my sanity, but that was secondary, really.
I gently trotted into the kitchen, Mother, ever the early riser among a family of early risers it seemed, was practically already done making a great breakfast. Pancakes, various toast, just a wonderful spread. The existence of such delightful food before my eyes put my mind at ease, temporarily forcing my problems away. Plot for the future, yes, but taking time to enjoy a breakfast didn’t seem like a bad idea.
I yawned, put at ease among the food. “Morning Ma.”
“Good morning Pinkamena.” Mother said, sounding like some of yesterday’s happiness flowed into the morning. It was nice. As was the nice sight and smell of breakfast.
‘Wow, breakfast looks really good.’ Pinkie said in our mindscape.
‘Huh,’ I thought, continuing when Pinkie hummed for me to do so, ‘I feel like that should remind me of something.’ You know, like some kind of reverse Deja Vu, where something feels like you should get Deja Vu.
Pinkie giggled, ‘Oh, you’re probably still tired from yesterday.’
Maybe, maybe. I took my seat and pretty soon after Limestone sat by me. “Morning, Pinks.”
“Hmm, morning.”
Limestone began to help herself to what food was already there, and I decided to follow suit. She seemed to have a good head on her shoulders, so why not? As I helped myself to some toast I heard Limestone making those noises one makes when wanting to say something but not sure if one should. I turned to her, munching on the toast, tilting my head. “So, what was that about Pinkamena?”
Welp, there went a non stressful breakfast. I blinked, not quite sure how to put it. Might as well claim a warlock did it. “I don’t really know.” I said, glancing towards the mane, “You think getting a cutie mark could give a mane magic powers?”
Limestone blinked, obviously not expecting that answer. “Uh, maybe? Ma, can cutie marks give magic to ponies?”
Mother tilted her head in thought before bringing over a tray of pancakes and placing it on the table. “I have heard of cutie marks doing strange things from time to time, but I am no expert. Though, usually they just represent what a pony does best. A core of what makes them them, even if that’s not how cutie mark specialists would put it.”
That seemed to satisfy Limestone for the moment, as she gruffly shrugged and grabbed a pancake. “Eh, that’s cool.”
I felt the sudden urge to engage with my not sibling, and so threw out a joke. “Maybe your cutie mark will let you just destroy rocks like no tomorrow.”
That brought a devious grin to Limestone’s face, as Pinkie giggled within our mind. “Oh, now that would rock.”
Okay, that genuinely got a chuckle out of me. Stress-less breakfast confirmed. At least until Pinkie spoke up. ‘Hey, hey Mena, can I taste some of the pancakes?’ She asked, joy clear in her tone.
Oh-ho-ho-ho no, no, I was not being put on the spot this early by whatever freak magic would inevitably inflate Pinkie’s mane into a perfect flowing, bouncy ball of cotton candy. Maybe if I had a better gauge of Pinkie’s improvisational skills when being put on the spot, but until then… I didn’t even know. ‘Uh, sorry Pinks, but I don’t think that’s a good idea.’ It also didn’t help that my right eyebrow decided to ache for no reason. Felt kinda familiar actually.
Pinkie gave a light whine of disappointment. ‘Aw… Why not?’
God, the sadness, albeit quite minor, still cut at my heart. I didn’t like disappointing Pinkie, but I also would hate to damn her to a bad future of my own creation. ‘I just. I just think our mane will do a weird thing again if we did. I don’t want to put you on the spot like that. Not until we know more about our control swapping, okay?’
She gave a morose mental sigh and said, ‘Okay…’ Most obviously not feeling okay.
I felt terrible again. ‘Uhm, you can dominate lunch or dinner later?’
She gave a light hum of thought before the answer, ‘Hmm, okay! Ma makes great lunches.’
Disappointment averted, now to survive the rest of the day.
Eventually Maud, Marble and Father all joined us in the glory of breakfast. Also eventually, Maud asked Father what the plan for the day was. “Today, I think the girls can handle one of the east fields. I think some of those rocks are ready, and it shouldn’t be terribly hard on them.” Ready for what? Earth pony whimsy? Granted it probably existed, but I was certain the girls did not have said whimsy. If anything Pinkie’s whimsy went into the Pinkie Sense, which I awaited with dread and interest in equal measure.
In the end I decided to shrug it off. More than likely Pinkie would want to jump in to break up the monotony of being brain bound, so I probably didn’t need to know anything. Yet, at least. I simply ate my delicious breakfast. The pain would come, but that was later.
And of course later came.
Father led the four of us to the east, of course. He himself dragging along a wheelbarrow type device against the near whipping winds that seemed to blow through the farm that day. It was like a box on wheels at least. The wheelbarrow thing, not the wind. I didn’t recognize anything, for whatever that was worth, the dust being kicked up not helping any. The rocks were kinda medium sized, by my estimation. At least when compared to the monstrous field that held Tom sculpture smasher, and the baby field we got after that. No duck rock at least. It knew I knew, and it knew its place. There was one that looked like a mini tower of Sauron, but eh, wasn’t a duck.
I followed Father, and started to wonder what it was like to travel like Pinkie, so I threw in a hop or two every few steps. The hops strained my sore muscles, but did help inject a bit of life into my steps. It felt nice. For some reason. Pinkie seemed to make a game out of my hops, humming in time with them, creating a discordant tune.
The wheelbarrow slowly came to a halt and Father detached himself from it. “These rocks should be well within your range. If anything comes up feel free to get me or your mother, alright?” I felt like he emphasized that, and really, I couldn’t blame him.
After that Father left us with the rocks. Limestone shrugged her shoulders and said, “Welp, let’s get to work girls.” And thus, we set to work.
‘You sure you don’t want me to help Mena?’ Pinkie asked.
I simply rolled another rock into a decently sized pile next to the wheelbarrow. While I loathed physical work for long periods of time, the possibility of the mane flipping to life in front of somepony lingered in my mind. Like a fish named Jim. Swore I heard that before. ‘I just don’t know how I’d handle it if our mane actually does change about now and if it was seen by somepony.’ Pinkie grumbled slightly, the boredom of the mind finally catching up with her. I would admit I appreciated her restraint when it came to taking over her body. Quick to throw me into control, slow to yank that control back, it seemed.
I looked down at the pile of rocks that had been gathered, a few bigger rocks having been added by one of the others. I could only assume Maud from the size. It looked like a Maud type of rock. Giving a sigh, I decided to go ahead and toss the rocks into the ‘barrow. No point in making a tiny crumbly mountain to an obnoxious degree. As I heaved one of the rocks with a groan, Pinkie sounded like she had an idea. Fear gripped me. ‘Weeeell, I don’t see my sisters nearby. We could swap and if my mane springs to life I can make the perfect excuse.’
The rock clattered against the wheelbarrow’s metal and I scrunched up my face in thought. It was a bit mean to keep Pinkie locked in her own mind, I supposed. And a simple glance about proved she was right, her sisters visible, but only so much with the dusty winds on top of the distance. Finally I rolled my eyes. ‘Alright, Pinks. Fair’s fair. You can take over.’
She squealed in delight, which did bring a smile to my face. ‘Ah, thanks Mena!’ And by golly gosh did she take over. It was like whiplash to me and was honestly scary how quickly she’d gotten the hang of swapping like that.
When I finally reoriented my inner mind vision, sure enough the curtain of pink that had been whipping about in the wind was gone, presumably into a seeming tangled mess that somehow doubled as a presentable hairstyle. Pinkie rolled her shoulders, and I could only imagine the smile on her face as she took up where I left off with putting rocks into their wheeled box.
Pinkie was mostly on her own after that, rolling the medium sized rocks to the ‘barrow in a not so neat little pile. We seemed to time things neatly so Marble, Limestone and Maud would roll in and throw in the rocks while Pinkie was out rolling rocks to her pile. That left the two of us mostly alone, and Pinkie was getting a tad bored with just work.
“Blagh.” She complained as she spat a smaller rock into the ‘barrow.
‘Monotony getting to ya?’ I asked.
She grunted a yes and began to march off to repeat the process. “Yeah. It’s just, so… samey! Back and forth, drop off rock, pick up rock.” She punctuated her little rant by picking up a rock that looked like a D20. I didn’t know what to put out there and gave a mental shrug only for Pinkie to happily gasp, “I know! What if we played a game?”
‘Uh, how would we play a game?’
She happily trotted to a nearby rock and rolled it about slightly. “We’ll swap! I’ll take this rock back, then we take turns running from the cart to bring the best rocks back as quickly as possible!”
Sounded stressful, but what the hell, ‘Well, it’s something to do.’
“Yeah-ha! I’ll run this back, then we’ll play.” She rolled the rock onto her head, more than likely her poofy mane, and made decent time on her way back to the wheelbarrow.
Once the rock was dumped with a clunk into the ‘barrow, Pinkie fidgeted in excitement over making a new game I suppose. “Okay, okay. How should we do this?”
Why ask me? It seemed like she had a good idea earlier. ‘Well, you said swap and take rocks back fast, so we could start there?’
“Oh, right.” And then the ground was rushing towards my quickly falling face when Pinkie threw me into control. ‘You start.’ My impulsive charge doth said.
I caught myself before my face became rocky road and rolled my eyes. “Welp, let’s see how well I do.”
Taking a deep breath I charged off from the wheelbarrow. Of course, when setting out with even the slightest amount of pressure everything decides to collude against you.
Not by the power of odd, probably magical in origin, mind shenanigans did my face meet the ground, but rather the most minute of pebbles. I slipped upon it in my rush and skid to a halt a decent distance away. I think Pinkie said something, but my spite levels were rising. Victory would be mine in this secret game between myself and a child.
Tearing my face from the rocky road, I tore back onto my path to find the prettiest, bestest rock for the wheeled bucket. I kept my head on a swivel, both to find a rock that would help in our nebulous game with hardly any rules, and looking out for malicious pebbles that would dare to trip me again.
My hooves beat the ground until something caught my eye. I put the breaks on, sliding to a near stop before running to the right. It seemed a little unassuming, the rock that held my gaze, but it was a nice size, and damn near round and smooth. ‘Ooh, that’s a good one.’ Pinkie said. I trusted her enough to not lie to me. Or at least not lie during a game in such a petty way. I gave the rock a quick once over before lifting it to my back and started my trek back to the bucket. As much as I wanted to just book it back, the round one would probably just keep going without end if it fell at any decent speed from my back.
It was a slower go getting back to the bucket, but I figured I made good time when I plopped the round rock to clatter against its brothers inside the wheelbarrow. A thought came to me as I watched it rumble to a halt in its new metal prison. “So, I assume we’re just… winging it? For fun? ‘Cause we didn’t time anything there.”
‘Oh. Yeah, just for fun. Feeling it out. I think.’ Eh, worked for me. I relaxed my body and let Pinkie take control of it again. My transition from body to mind being a much more calm procedure than the opposite.
Pinkie quickly stretched her newly acquired old body and did a quick jog in place. “Okey dokey! Here I goey!” She wasted no time in charging off, obviously learning from my face plant as she didn’t crash into the earth. Granted, that could be she bounced more than I did. Maybe.
In what felt like no time flat she found a box shaped rock, quickly looked it over and flung it onto her mane before bouncing back to the bucket. All in all, her rock capturing felt just smoother than mine as she headbutted the rock into the pile of rocks.
‘Nice job Pinks. I think you get bonus points for grace there.’
“Aw!” Pinkie said, kinda bashfully and happily. “I think bonus points should be rewarded for sheer determination.”
I chuckled within our mindscape, ‘Two judges judging each other far too kind. Ha, I guess we’re both winners.’
“Best kind of winning! Hmm, okay, let’s go again.”
Whatever verse, same as the first, my face rushed towards the ground with a burst of nerves. With practiced fumbling I caught myself. I flipped my now curtain mane slightly as I brought my head back up, only to see Limestone with a rock in her mouth.
I didn’t know what to really do there, I was partially freaking out I think, while Limestone dropped the rock into the bucket and analyzed me. “Hmm, I guess your cutie mark DID magic your mane some.”
I nodded a bit and glanced at said mane. “Yeah. Kinda weird getting used to it.”
Limestone looked a bit tired, but in decent spirits now that my heart was slowing down from the hammering I didn’t notice it had raised to. “Kinda neat.”
Honestly, I could agree with that. “Yup, neat.” Feeling a little awkward I decided to divert attention. “Wanna play the game I was playing?”
She quirked her brow at my sudden question. “By yourself?”
“Yeah,” I nodded, “I run, find a rock I think is suitable and run it back, and, uh,” I couldn’t quite say fruitlessly compare times and finesse between myself and Pinkie, so I found the middle ground, “I… try and beat my time and how good my rock is each run. Wanna play?”
Pinkie highly agreed with roping Limestone into our game, so I had to be doing something right.”Ooh, ooh, good idea Mena.”
Her face went through a handful of emotions. At first not being impressed, then a little confused, before finally ending on ‘screw it why not.’ “That sounds better than just mindlessly walking back and forth.”
I pretended to perk up. “Alrighty, wanna start right now?” Limestone gave a light shrug, so I nodded and continued, “Okay, okay, o-on the count of three.” I readied myself to begin sprinting, “One, two, three!” And I dashed away, hearing Limestone do the same in a different direction.
That went on for quite awhile, Limestone and I running back and forth, and eventually I think I even saw Marble and Maud doing the same. Pinkie and I swapped pretty frequently and before I knew it the bucket was filled with decently sized and nice looking rocks and the sun was slowly lowering its way down the sky. Honestly, it wasn’t bad. The game, while a little silly and vague, was fun, and seeing the sisters play it, share quick moments throughout, it was nice.
Eventually the game, much like our rock collecting, came to an end. I wiped my brow after dropping my final rock into the bucket. I turned to see Maud look over the mountain of rocks, seemingly in contemplation. “Who is going to bring the wheelbarrow back?”
Limestone rolled her shoulders and approached the bucket. “Eh, you and Pinkamena head home. Marble and I will drag this back.”
Maud nodded and started walking while Marble blinked for a moment, but didn’t protest. I quickly followed after Maud. As we walked Maud was being Maud, so things felt awkward when they were probably fine. We just walked, hearing Limestone instruct Marble on how to strap the two of them to the bucket properly fading in the distance.
We walked in silence for awhile, Pinkie didn’t seem to mind it too much, lots of running around probably put a dent in her enthusiasm, magic cutie mark crack or no. I wanted to talk, though. No idea what, and starting conversations is just difficult and awkward.
Eventually, however, Maud decided to speak. “How was your day, Mena?”
I honestly didn’t know how to respond at first. “I, I don’t really know. Fine I guess? Things just feel kinda weird.”
‘Mena?’
Maud turned to my direction slightly. “Do you want to talk about it?”
I didn’t really, but I knew Pinkie wouldn’t rest until I gave some answer, even if I didn’t fully comprehend my own feelings. “It’s just, just odd. Feeling like this. Pretending to be Pinkie. Appearing so suddenly and feeling like I don’t even have time to think. I-it’s just, hard to process. I guess.”
We continued to walk in silence for a few moments, even Pinkie didn’t seem to have anything to say. It remained that way until Maud once again decided to talk. “I appreciate you looking after Pinkamena.”
I shrugged off the praise, it’s what any sane person would do, and not worth anything really. “Just doing what anypony else would.”
“No.”
I think I felt my eye twitch. “What do you mean ‘no’?”
She turned to me again with her monotone expression. “Not just anypony would do what you are doing. You have put Pinkie and my family first quite a lot the past few days. I have a feeling you will continue to do that, so no. You aren’t just any other pony.” She finished and turned away again, seemingly not about to continue.
Blinking in confusion, I had to delve deeper, I didn’t know what the hell she was talking about. “Th-then, what am I?” I asked, feeling my voice crack.
Maud didn’t even turn to me that time. “You’re Mena.”
Wish someone would tell me what the fuck that meant one of these days.
The rest of the day was well enough. Limestone cursed the Bucket, dinner was nice, sleep was had, and of course the dawn promised pain. School beckoned once more, and I could not dread it more. Pinkie also wasn’t looking forward to it either.
We both dreaded it for separate reasons, of course. She, because after gaining her new energy, and with her previous experience with Mr Chalk’s class, just did not want to deal with math. Likewise, I was afraid Pinkie would have a lapse, and toss me into the driver’s seat without thinking. In front of a full class. It was purely the mane thing, if the mane didn’t swap like it did I’d be fine, but doing math with tons of eyes on me is not my ideal way of spending my time.
And it was not helped by Pinkie joining Limestone in on some light groaning about math. I didn’t know if it was Pinkie’s new energy giving way to verbal complaining or if her tolerance for math plummeted since last school day.
‘Hey, Pinkie?’
‘Yeah, Mena?’
I hesitated for a moment before heading forward with my words, ‘If you could, could you not throw me into control in front of other ponies? At least ponies who aren’t part of the family for now?’
Pinkie seemed to think it over, and while seeming like she didn’t understand my reasons, gave a mental shrug and assented, ‘Alright Mena.’
As we walked there, Pinkie occasionally bouncing, Limestone groaning, Maud being Maud and Marble just seeming tired, I was prepping myself to battle the inevitable. I mean, I could constantly remind Pinkie not to do it in a panicked flurry, but the little voices of anxiety said not to. Granted the little voice also said to not remind people of anything ever lest they spite me. A smaller voice, one hidden behind the anxiety said to trust Pinkie, that she’d pull through.
Even with my knowledge, even with the time I spent with her, knowing how much she cared, she was still a foal, a child. Can’t expect perfection there.
Anxieties battled fears as I peered through Pinkie’s eyes. Rockville came into view far too quickly, the school house even faster. I swallowed my fears as much as I could, I needed to keep a clear head for the day ahead.
The sisters entered the school house, and it seemed that they were one of the latest to arrive, still one time, just later than the majority of the class. I supposed that was reasonable, they had a ways to walk and all.
The four sisters gave their hellos to Mr Chalk. Mr. Chalk turned from his light scribbling on the whiteboard to smile at the greeting foals. “Ah, good timing girls, we-” He cut off while looking at Pinkie, an even wider smile adorning his face. “Ah! Congratulations on acquiring your Cutie Mark, Pinkamena!”
That got the rest of the class to turn and stare, most giving their own congratulations. Pinkie giggled at the attention. “Oh, thank you! It just came outta nowhere.” That’s an understatement.
Folder also gave Pinkie a small congratulations, and Frame simply gave a small nod. I thought that was nice.
Mild interruption over, the four set about placing themselves in seats and waited for Mr Chalk to begin. I think every living thing in that school was on the same wavelength, sans Chalk himself. He was going to throw math at us. Especially with the math equations scribbled onto the board at the front of the class. My fears of being thrown into control, mane poofing into a curtain, merely grew as the abomination of math spoke.
“Alright class,” The white stallion said, standing ominously in front of his formulas of doom, “Today I figured we would do something fun.” The entire class seemed to draw back from that. Mr Chalk seemed to have expected that, as he smiled and drew down one of those roll-y tapestry things in front of the chalkboard, which held images of places and ponies I couldn’t quite recognize. “Today we’re doing some history!”
Quite a few young ponies laughed in joy at that proclamation. I heard Marble sigh happily and Limestone grumble, “Thank Celestia.” It honestly felt like those student ponies hadn’t had something other than math for years. I could see that being a fact.
The lesson was a bit underwhelming, really. Mr Chalk mostly covered the founding of Equestria, you know, Clover the Clever, Hurricane, Platinum, Smart Cookie, just a bit less Hearth Warming and more, ‘That’s how Equestria was made,’ while focusing on historical tidbits. But, hey, no math.
Despite being a retread for me, for the most part, it was still interesting, but with more gritty realism. Like the funny yet ironic fact that there was a minor, in comparison, civil war at Equestria’s founding. Some ponies refused to accept Windigoes as fact and refused to come together with the other pony races to found Equestria… So they got together with similarly minded racists of other pony races to destroy Equestria so they could go back to hating each other. Yup, even in violent historical pasts, ponies can be freaking stupid.
It was fun at least, too bad it went by in a flash and early morning suddenly became lunch break time. And right as Commander Hurricane was sword fighting a unicorn who was wielding ten swords at once. It felt like I blinked and history became a fever dream, and then it was time for lunch.
The sisters enjoyed the same food as last time as they spoke about the miraculous non math morning. The only thing that slightly bothered me was I couldn’t quite tell if the relief was born of actual only math being taught or if it was cartoon exaggeration sneaking in.
“That was fun, wasn’t it?” Marble asked her sisters around the table.
Maud was Maud and simply turned and said, “I am fascinated by how Puddinghead apparently broke apart such a large boulder midair. I think I will ask Father about it later.”
Everyone acted like that was perfectly normal. Limestone tilted her head back and forth. “It was interesting. Still, if Puddinghead could punch a rock apart, why did snow take ‘em out?”
Pinkie shrugged as she sipped from her cup. “It was a lotta lotta snow.”
“It’s still snow…” Honestly, Limestone just sounded lost, as if her poor young mind couldn’t imagine the proper amount of snow. Granted, it was magic hate snow, so I'd give her a pass. Limestone thought for a moment, “Hurricane was cool, if a bit of a hothead.”
Pinkie shrugged with a smile, “I liked Puddinghead! He was so-o-o-o funny!”
Limestone scoffed lightly, “Out of all the leaders, he’s barely better than Platinum was.”
Pinkie seemed to take that personally, it seemed, “If Hurricane was so cool, then how come Pansy was one of the ones to save the day?”
Limestone looked heated and ready to respond when Marble interjected into the brewing argument, “The unicorns were neat.”
That threw the argument out the window as Limestone thought and Pinkie was next ponder. “Are there any unicorns in Rockville?” Pinkie asked.
Limestone and Marble looked confused while Maud looked like Maud and said, “Not to my knowledge.”
“Huh, I wonder why. Maybe unicorns don’t like rocks?” Pinkie asked, rhetorically.
There was a lull in the conversation, the sisters deciding to focus more on eating, at least for a moment. After a bit of eating Marble tilted her head. “Do you think Mr. Chalk will do more history, or will he spring math on us again?”
Limestone glared at her hayburger and growled. “Probably math.”
Another moment of silence appeared before Maud spoke. “I don’t mind the math.”
Pinkie groaned slightly, “I really hope it isn’t more math.” Before healing the mental wounds of math with more soda. The perfect cure all.
Marble spoke next gently, “I think I’d like math more if we didn’t have it every time.”
That got a unanimous agreement from the gathered Pies.
The meal flew by quickly after that, the hope of more history upon the air as the foals gathered once more in the torture room of math. It was actually kinda electrifying. As if the crushing weight of math hid neatly around the corner, but we were all hoping it was more history.
“Alright class,” Said Mr Chalk, “I think we’ll start again with one of my favorite things. A quiz!” The entire class seemed to deflate, anticipating the worst, “A history quiz!”
The class didn’t exactly erupt, but there were sighs of relief and smiles abound. Chalk started handing -hoofing?- out quiz forms that, from what little I could glean, was a simple thing that seemed like a gentle recap of the history Chalk had laid out to the kids. Really, it was quite merciful of the stallion. Pinkie at least seemed to really enjoy it.
Rather quickly, the quiz was eaten up, even if it looked like time flew by during the quiz. Sadly, all good times must end.
Mr Chalk glanced at the time and hummed as the final foals began to wrap up their quizzes, “Hmm, very good class, very good. Well, since we seem to have some time,” He said, pulling on the roll-y tapestry thing to roll it up, revealing the chalkboard of doom once more, “Let’s finish today with a little bit of math!”
The horror was palpable, the foals groaned, lamenting the once upon good times that were just this morning, but were now gone.
Mr Chalk handed out blank pieces of paper, simply instructing the kids to note down their work and answers. Normally, this wouldn’t be a big deal, but I could feel Pinkie’s stress spike upon Mr Chalk’s impromptu math of doom.
We all sat in relative silence, and Pinkie had barely begun. She made a few steps into one of the problems before stopping, thinking hard. I will be honest, the sudden leap of math upon me, plus my relative rust on doing any sort of math left me mostly useless to begin with. But letters added to math always threw me. And with one last scratch of the pencil Pinkie wrenched a little. ‘Agh!’ Pinkie mentally screamed.
I tried to speak, ‘Pink-’, Was all I got out before she shoved me into control, accompanied by a curtain of pink to the left of my vision.
I wanted to curl up and die, as the eyeballs of various foals bore into me. I tried my best to ignore it, to ignore the squirming, worm-like feeling in my guts, to appear as if it was perfectly normal for manes to shift and warp like that. It was hard to focus on anything other than the sound of blood rushing through my ears though. It made it hard to maintain my attention on the numbers. And the letters.
The world tuned out around me as I whittled away at the math. I didn’t want to hear anything, I didn’t want to see anything, I just wanted to smash this math into dust and slither back into my mind hole and lock the world away.
Quite honestly, I lost track of time in midst of my attempts to forget all but the numbers before me. I don’t know if Pinkie said anything, I don’t know if Mr Chalk said anything, I didn’t care if anyone said anything, I just noted down what numbers made sense and tossed Pinkie back into control. I think I heard a quick, ‘Thanks Mena!’ Which left me unsure of how to feel.
I sorta hid from the world after that, like posting art to twitter and refusing to look at the site for hours. Except that it was to avoid not seeing anything, whereas for this I just wanted to close my eyes, teleport to tomorrow and wipe this moment for the face of history. Were it so easy.
Static rang in my not ears of the mindscape, time was wobbly and uncertain. I wanted to process what happened, such a small and simple thing, probably not even important, me being a giant blubbering baby. But knowing and feeling were two different sections of the brain, and sometimes they didn’t sync together seamlessly.
Yeah, I wasn’t sure how long I was like that. I glanced back to the real world and saw the sisters walking home, Pinkie seemingly unaware of my tiny breakdown, which I was mildly thankful for. I chose to ignore it again, the real world I mean. I didn’t need to walk, so I got to super sulk.
At least until some time later when something loud enough broke through the static. I grumbly paid attention to reality again and… Limestone was arguing with Pinkie?
I didn’t really get it. I searched our surroundings and it seemed we had made it home and it was just Limestone and Pinkie at the side of the house yelling about something, but I hadn’t caught anything, what with the not static still ringing in my not ears.
It made me feel like crap. I probably should have been there to help Pinkie during such sisterly arguments, but no, I had to go be a mopey dope. I was reminded then and there why I never wanted children. I was one on some level.
Regardless, Pinkie was my charge, I liked the world and it was just the right thing to do in this situation. You know, being a brain parasite. I shook my fake head and tried to reorient myself to listen in on the argument, to maybe help Pinkie, make up for my vanishing act and have a civil conversation about throwing me into control when I didn’t want it. I didn’t hear what Limestone had to say, with a stern expression on her face, but I did catch Pinkie’s delightful response.
“I said I don’t wanna talk about it!” Pinkie all but shouted, and a sense of dread flowed into my veins.
Without even a moment to protest, I found nerves firing, wind blowing and the ground almost charging towards my face before I caught myself and trembled in rage.
Feeling a crack somewhere inside, I shot ramrod straight with a scowl and ground out, “Alright then!” I dug into our mind a shoved Pinkie into control with a careless flow, wrenching myself from the physical world.
The static returned as I stumbled away from the center of the mindscape. I wanted away, to be gone, so I started walking. I began walking through the faux rock farm, nearing the faded blended edge that gave way to the familiar darkness that held me whence I first entered the world of Equestria. I hesitated slightly, but upon hearing Pinkie’s voice trying to break through the static, I grimaced and stepped over the faded line, and stumbled into the darkness. Not looking back, I marched, and marched, with the static as my only guide.
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Ah dear, bit of trouble in paradise. Pinkie's as impulsive as ever I see, poor Mena.
wonder if the element of laughter would still react if Mena took over?
YES!!! YES!!! YES!!!
Ive been diligently keeping this story in my tracking bookshelf waiting for the day it gets updated. Never losing hope even when the story appeared to be dead. My faith has finally been rewarded. 😁😁😁
"Yeah, no. I'll be here for you, Pinka, but no way in Tartarus that you're using me to get away from things you don't want to deal with yourself."
I completely forgot this existed. My first thought after receiving the update email was "Is that the one where a human wakes up as one of the mirror pool clones?". And to be fair, nowadays if a fic goes unupdated with no word from the author for over half a year, it's a valid response to think they died. Considering the Kung flu and all.
Our yearly update is out, and with that I will see you all in 2023
Nice
What just happened at the end there...?
Glad you're back, this story's really interesting. Really wondering what it'll be like when the two of them leave home, whether that'll be more or less stressful.
hmm
I think Maud is starting to think of Mena as just another sister, and not just something that's on her sister's mind.
glad to read some more of this.
you doing good then?
shit hit the fan, im hoping that both mena will find way back from deep reaches of subconsciousness soon and pinkie won't blame herself for pushing mena too much, tho im pretty sure both of those will be false
Sadly, I can't remember if this is normal behavior for "Mena," but I feel like it might not be. Wish I had time to re-read the previous chapters.
Still, since Pinkie broke her word in the classroom, then used "Mena" as a convenient escape device without asking, at least I understand part of why this is where things went.
Hmmm, are we going to get a time skip? The mention of time being distorted makes me think that's a possibility.
11154851
im guessing mena either left pinkies mind or went deep enough in that she canot be reached for now
Excellent work keep it up
Alas, pinkie is but a foal and is probably struggling to understand what she did was wrong.
Thanks for the update!
YEY!!!!!
Difficult to read here, dunno what happened in this sequence after mena was thrown in. Someone explain for me please, I'd be very grateful.
Perhaps pinkie's passenger will find something out in the dark. Perhaps it'll find Princess Luna.
it's back!
Boundaries are important, especially for friends with anxiety.
I quite enjoy the dynamics you're establishing with the other pie sisters. The clues to the larger world of Rockville and it's lack of unicorns, things off in the adult world, while not detracting from the story of these kids living their lives and figuring stuff out. The way you do it is super enjoyable to me, though it's hard to place exactly what. It feels soothing.
I wonder what Mena will find out in the static. If anything at all.
...and you are family
Kinda hope we don't spend to much time when they're kids
11155233
Basically, Mena “snapped”, got angry at being shoved into control like that, shoved Pinkie back into the reins, pulled herself away and simply “walked away” so Pinkie can’t reach her.
As someone who was an avid follower of Apocalyponies and even got art from them back in the Tumblr days, talk of “The Static” brings back rather horrific and yet nostalgic memories.
Time skip to MLP ep 1 when?
Good to see your alive, good chapter too.
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K
Thank you very much for updating this!
I hope pinky and mena will make up soon, and I wonder if twilight will try and find a way to separate them when she finds out about mena?
11155993
my best guess as to how they will seporate is the mirror pool. if mena stays gone till then or not im not sure which would be better but the little pinkie we have met so far is nice and i like her so i hope we see more of her
11156071
I don't think they will separate in the mirror pool, but instead only pinky will be copied, then pinky will get depressed and ask mena for help! And I hope Mena doesn't just dissappear on pinky for too long, maybe a day or two so pinky knows that mena was serious?
11156082
maby mena will recover memorys for a bit then come back in a week or so when things have cooled down
Ahhhh! I absolutely love this! Glad to see you are well! Love the drama going on in this chapter.
Well then seems pinkie crossed a small line and thus Mena is on a break for who knows how long. Wonder how this’ll affect pinkie losing her friend for however long. Will she break or will she strive in pushing through. Guess we shall wait and see.
Walking deep into the dark distance away from Pinkie makes me thing Mena is entering the subconscious, and will appear back out quite a few years later, and sometime around the Surprise Party for Pinkie will Mena and Pinkie have to talk about things like what just happened, or at least I want to see how Mena deals with that episode.
It's alive! ALIVE!!
Can't wait to see how they'll deal with that last... fight?
Heh. ~Rarity and Tom~
Putting letters in math should be a crime against humanity.
Potential spoilers for chapter 10:
While I knew a timeskip was likely coming soon, I'm concerned how this will affect both Pinkie and Maud. Of course, this is if this is a timeskip. But I can't began to imagine how much hurt, guilt, and loneliness Pinkie will experience. There is a good chance she will never understand what she did wrong. I could even see her turning such feelings into resentment towards Mena or her siblings. As for Maud, she just explicitly accepted Mena into the family and confessed how she was a good pony due being there for Pinkie. Depending on what she learns about Pinkie's actions, I could see her either feeling betrayal towards Mena. Or she might understand that Mena needs time regardless of how long the time is. The bottom line is there is almost certainly a lot of hurt that will result from a timeskip from this from several characters. I don't think it's a bad decision from a story telling perspective. I'm just concerned for this fictional future.
Oh no... Oh no no no... Mena no, please don't walk away...
I wonder if in the future (or if there is a time skip) pinkie will figure out why Mena left and apologize to her or if Mena will confront pinkie about it?
I think this might end up as a basis for Pinkie Promises, Pinkie broke her word and lost a friend seemingly forever, which would explain her emphasis on keeping promises on the main timeline
And now we wait.
Poor Mena.
Well, it was fun while it lasted. Now back to never expecting another chapter.
Some words:
It seems Pinkie here unconsciously started treating Mena as a convenient i-dont-want-to-deal-with-it device. She ignored the potential consequences, for both not understanding why and how serious they might be.
Mena's behavior might seem childish or overreacting, but you have to remember that she really cares about Pinkies happiness, and being treated as a freak, while not really that likely, is pretty common among the kids for more stupid things. On the other hand, if someone doubts her mental health, Mena could be removed forever (say killed), and running Pinkie's future is quite easy from here. Then there is betrayal of trust... And potentially, social anxiety?...
We don't know enough yet about the conflict that broke the camel's back.
this story's really interesting y hope for more.
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I don’t suppose you know the name of that fic? It sounds really interesting and I’d love to read it