• Published 20th Jan 2019
  • 16,560 Views, 672 Comments

For I am of Pinkie's Mind - Neon Icy Wings



A human finds themselves as a voice within Pinkie's mind, only she's a young filly still on the rock farm. Aching for home, but worried what others might think, this new 'Mena' must maneuver life in Equestria. As much a life they can anyways.

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Chapter 2: Rockballs and Rock Falls

"Hey, Pinks?" I asked the still spinning filly, who showed no sign of stopping, presumably from the fact she was spinning in imagination land. Man, I could only imagine what her reaction would have been if she was full on Pinkie at the time.

She stopped and looked at me, which was still a strange 'new-ness' for me, and tilted her head slightly. "Yeah, Mena?"

"Uh, what were ya doing down here at the river anyway?"

The moment those words left my 'not mouth' her demeanor did a one eighty so fast I almost worried she suffered whiplash. God, seeing her lit up face of happiness dissolve into a look similar to a child who recently got a new toy that fails to distract from them accidentally having destroyed their previous favorite toy, was absolutely soul crushing. "Well... I was playing with my sister and we lost the rockball. And she didn't see where it went and blamed me for losing it... She was so angry, I-I thought if I got it back she wouldn't b-be angry with me anymore..."

Rockball? What the hell is a rockball? I mean I get it she grew up on a weird rock farm for rocks and rock accessories, and I think ate rocks but I didn't think it would- Getting off track here. "Ooookay. So, why were you looking for this... this rockball, uh, here in this little river area? May I ask?"

She looked at me with the biggest puppy dog eyes I'd ever seen, brought on only through sorrow at that. Do not die dear not heart, I still need you, need you for rockball investigations and hopefully a long life beyond. Life in either candyland or earth, or both. Either way, my heart decided not to shatter at least long enough for me to hear Pinkamena's reasoning. "W-we were playing rockball passing in the west quarry, a-and when Limestone hit it my way she fell down and I-I kicked it harder than I meant too, a-and this is the only place I could think it could have gone! I've been looking and looking and I-I-I just can't find it!"

Soul. Hurting.

Heart. Crushing.

I wasn't sure how I could properly help. Seeing was a big bonus indeed, but aside from some of those object discovery games mixed in amongst puzzles I wasn't exactly the most perceptive individual ever. But hey, two processing centers are better than one ain't that right? "Now don't you cry. I shall help you in the recovery of this rocky ball! After all, you helped me with my sight, why not put it to good use?"

Now... I won't say my motives were entirely as simple and selfless as that. Still wanted to build that there amicable relations with the pink filly. She might be trusting, but I had to live up to that trust, lest I lose it entirely too soon. I mean, I did care for her, she was second best pony back when I was human and absorbed into the show -before I was literally absorbed into the show- but, we were talking continued existence there. Wanted to avoid electroshock pill rods, or an uncooperative Pinkie pony. It's kinda like if you really loved someone, and wanted to marry them for that alone, but you couldn't deny their deep pocketed money would help your starving artist lifestyle immensely and single-handedly turn your life around. I find ignoring those occasional ingrained bits of greed, even if it simply on the side of something you would do anyway, to be a bad habit.

Either way, Pinkamena's face lit up a little with happiness and hope. Seriously, it's like I'd just promised to take down Serpent Sam Joe the kidnapping snake man who stole her family. Finding a simple rockball to mend a wound between sisters meant so much to her... And then she ran up and hugged me.

Well, as much of a hug as could be given in an imagination-scape, but still. It was touching, literally in some sense for my poor physically deprived self, even if only mentally in a way. Hugs were rare and awkward back home, but that? That was nice.

I would live up to that damn trust if it killed me. Continued -happy- existence was still a nice bonus, but I could live with protecting Pinkamena, soon to be Pinkie, Pie. That could be my preparing for the worst. I mean there were worse ways things coulda played out. I could have been stuck in Diamond Tiara's head for example. And no, I don't have any other examples. Any other pony, barring background ponies whose personalities were never defined, or I never saw defined at least, would be preferable. Discord, Sombra -learning his backstory woulda been a treat in it of itself-, god even Silver Spoon wouldn't have been as bad. Talk about narcissism!

But, back on track. Find rockball. Enjoy hug yes, but find rockball.

I returned the hug, if a bit awkwardly, and just enjoyed that little moment. After a bit I pointed towards the eye window thingy. "Alright, best we get to looking. Ya did say it was dusk-ish after all."

She let go of the hug and nodded. "Okay." She ran towards the eye window and sat down, myself quickly joining her.

As her vision started to shift around the rocky river I began to notice something... I could hear the river all of a sudden! Okay, maybe not so sudden. Could have slowly developed after the sight or something. Either way, it was nice to have another sense back, and even nicer welcome back to my hearing to be a babbling brook. I wasn't gonna question these turn of events.

I gazed around the river and its surroundings. Yes, I was looking, but it also easily doubled as a nice sight see. Might not have been that long a time inside the darkness with nothing to look at, but you never know what you have until it's gone as it goes.

Speaking of, seeing was kinda weird. Then again two processing centers through one set of eyeballs is going to suffer compatibility issues. It was almost normal in a way. I couldn't turn our head, or direction of our eyes, but I could focus on Pinkamena's peripheral vision and see things in decent definition. So long as Pinkamena looked in the general direction of something I could still focus on it as if I wasn't bound to the eyeball whims of a small filly.

"Soooo, what's the rockball look like? I'm not a rock aficionado." I didn't even have to look away from the eye window to know imagination Pinkamena gave me a look of absolute disgust, demanding me amend my post question statement. "I'm not a rock enthu-... not a rock focused pony."

The eye window showed Pinkamena's vision wander along the river, glancing side to rocky side. "Well, it's really really round. Like a ball. Kinda grey. Bit of blue."

Well, ask a stupid question.

I let my eyes take in our surroundings, trying to see a round, grey, blue rock amongst a veritable sea of rocks, in various states of roundness and grey-ness. There was the river, with random assorted rocks and pebbles here or there, there was quite a large mountainous incline on the other side of the river and a decently sized rocky slope to our right. I saw nothing rockball shaped though. 'Agh. I don't see it here. Uh, what direction is the west quarry you were playing in exactly?'

I heard her hum lightly and saw her turn a bit to our right, facing the slope. "Kinda thataway."

I hummed in return, glancing back towards the river. 'Follow along the river that way then.' I feel a twinge of paranoia, which brought on my hope that the rockball didn't roll and flow too far away. Or got lodged into the kinda mountain. That line of thinking arose to mind a specific thought. 'Uh, any time you're suppose to get home by Pinks?'

I could hear the hesitation in the words that followed that question. "U-uhm, I should have an hour left."

Should. What a lovely little word. Ripe for abuse as well, that little word. A little word acting as a warning to my logic. The sooner the better, I decided. I sharpened my vision, focusing on detail and discerning over admiring. Blegh, felt like I was nitpicking a Leonardo painting.

Not much happened for awhile. Just a little, pink filly walking along a small, little river, in search of a rockball of unknown size. Well, unknown to half of her at least. Then again, half of two hundred percent is one hundred, though that was assuming I, myself, was running at full tilt. Yeah, I should lay off the math.

The longer it took the more I began to worry about the fate of the little -I hoped little- rockball. I didn't want Pinkamena to return home empty hoofed so near, or even after, her curfew. I couldn't claim if losing a rockball warranted as serious a response Limestone had given or not, but either way, I really wanted to help Pinks get it back. If only I could pick it ou- oh, dang it.

'Pinks, stop moving will ya? I think I see it.'

Despite only moving at a light trot and holding hardly any momentum she still screeched to a stop. Upon halting in place she looked around, trying to see what I had saw. "Huh? Where? I don't see it."

I let out a sigh, equal parts frustration and exasperation, some exasperation because she turned her vision to places I couldn't have even seen. "The river, Pinks, look to the river." Why? Why would I sigh? Because in the middle of the little of the river, stream, brook, there was quite the round rock that seemed to match the color description. Under easily eight, probably more, inches of water. That little river apparently had more than meets the eye, beneath its surface. And, from the looks of it, the river had grown a tad wider than from whence we started.

"Ooooh, sediment."

'Agreed.'

Quest update, found rockball. Part two, find a way to get rockball out without drowning pink ponies. I mean, if it was eight or so inches of lake water, that would be one thing, but I wasn't about to send Pinkamena into the rocky river rapids.

I heard Pinkamena groan, mirroring my frustration as she shook her vision side to side. "Well, now how am I supposed to get that home?"

I wracked my brain, as no doubt Pinkamena was doing the same. How would we get a decently hefty rock out of a decently paced river, that held the previously mentioned rock in a nice little dip?

I drew from the greatest thinker to ever thinker, and wrapped my hoof against my forehead and repeated the sacred mantra, "Think, think, think." We could just roll up into the river and push it out, but I didn't think going home, drenched and cutting curfew so close was a good idea. '... Uh, look around a bit, see if there's anything around we can use to... I don't know, push it or leverage it out.'

And so she did. She set out her gaze across our side of the river, and the side across the not so rapid rapids. Searching for just about anything that could aid us. "Aha!" What?

It took me a second to see exactly why Pinkamena was 'aha-ing' about. The subject of such celebration was raised before my eye window. It was magnificent, it was amaz- nah it was a stick. Not even all that sturdy or long. Pinkie I was disappoint. 'Not gonna work.'

"What? Why not?"

Can you not see, dear Pinkie, that your stick be too dinky?

'Base of the idea is right enough. Use a stick to push the rock, but that stick in particular is too small to accomplish anythin'. What we really need is a branch. One that's thick enough on both ends but still light enough for you to use.'

She turned around, letting the stick fall to the ground. I saw the eye window narrow towards the slope, particularly what appeared to be a hefty branch near the top. Pinkamena moved towards the slope, and began to climb it slowly in a grueling looking process. After almost slipping on loose gravel, she pulled herself triumphantly to the top, scrambling to her hooves. Had to admit, she was a sturdy little filly.

She walked lightly over to a much bigger stick, like a large tree limb stripped of all its extraneous and fragile branches. "Think this would work?"

Could be a bit heavy, but it would probably be our best shot. 'Yeah, I guess. Hafta get across the river to push the rockball out onto the right river bank though.'

She nodded in understanding, grabbing the limb with her teeth. "Alright." With one hard tug she dislodged it from its resting place and sent it sliding down the slope. She spat and spluttered lightly, I couldn't imagine it tasted all that good.

She slid down after the limb, kinda stumbled upon landing on solid ground, but carried that momentum to the riverside, and glanced up and down the waters. "Uh, maybe we could use those?" She pointed her hoof at a few stones jutting from the river's surface.

A bit of an annoying way, the rocks weren't even in all that straight of a line, but it was better than nothing I supposed. But, 'How are ya going to get the branch over? I think you can use it to shift the rockball, but I doubt you can jump across the rocks and drag that thing with ya.'

Her eyes squinted slightly, shifting from the branch to the rocks until they settled on the opposite bank of the river. "I think I have an idea."

Well I sure didn't. What was going through her little filly mind? She trotted back over to the limb and seemed to inspect it. 'What are you-' She grabbed it with her front hooves and threw the branch up to the best of her ability, one end stuck firmly on the ground while the rest got about eighty percent upright before falling back down. But, she didn't let it meet the ground. She quickly got into position and bucked the branch with all her might.

The branch danced through the air a decent ways, and much to my surprise, cleared the river, landing with a heavy thump on the other side. 'Good air.'

"Now I just have to hop across the rocks... and I can get the rockball back." She positioned herself in front of the rocky line and tried to psych herself up. Though I could feel her trepidation as she looked on the river and its rocks.

'Don't worry, Pinks. Just take it one rock at a time. No need to rush.' I heard her take a deep breath and let it out. Calming her down quite a bit. She readied herself once again, lining up her aim and before long she leapt.

Now, the river was pretty shallow, so it wouldn't have been a travesty if we fell in, at least in a best case scenario, but then explaining the soaking wet filly would be annoying and would be a blow to Pinkamena's morale. Best to be avoided. And I think some of Pinkamena's fear was starting to hit me, as we sailed through the air, from riverbank to the first rock. Adrenalin pumping, stomach dropping...

I heard the click of hooves on stone before I properly knew if we landed or not. A bit of sway back and forth and we stopped. Pinkamena breathed a sigh of relief, I did as well, well with less actual breathing. "Okay... not that bad."

She took another breath and leapt, much more confident than the last. Boy, that was a mistake.

She made it to the second rock, but not at the same time. Her front hooves landed, but her back hooves dangled into the water. "Gah! Cold cold." She had my sympathies.

She thrashed her back hooves furiously to get fully onto the rock. She thrashed and clawed at the rock and quickly landed her left back hoof onto it, but in her rush one of the front hooves slipped off into the river, throwing her off kilter as that caused her to spin half way around with quite a bit of force, and splashing more water around her.

She groaned from the cold waters and the general frustration from the faltering. She quickly shifted her weight and rolled the rest of the way onto the rock, but what confused me was that she sat up and was rubbing one of her back hooves. 'What's the rub?'

"I hit something real hard with my hoof." That had to suck. I wondered what she hi-

Then I heard the rumbling. 'Pinkie, please tell me that that's just me.'

I saw her vision flit towards the rumbling. A single, small rock with a wet sheen finished tumbling off to the ground besides our large branch, a few smaller pebbles it dislodged following it down. Her gaze inched upwards along the pseudo mountain that rose from the riverbank we were jumping to. Her vision was greeted by the sight of larger, teetering rocks and boulders, ready to make an absolute flat cake out of both of us.

I didn't expect to face such fatal mortality so soon. I didn't even need Pinkamena's fear, which I did indeed feel, to know such terror. 'I take it back, rush!' Without sparing a moment to respond Pinkamena leapt to her hooves and made a leap for the riverbank away from the teetering tower of terror. 'Fly you fool!'

"I don't have any wings!"

We hit the bank and Pinkamena ran towards the slope, beginning to climb it by the time the horrifying sounds of crashing rock met our ears. Her vision twitched back a bit. 'Don't look back!' Of course she did anyway. Rocks were falling, certifiable boulders were rolling down and hitting down upon the river, splashing water pretty far for such a, mostly, shallow river.

All that in a split second before she turned back and scrambled with renewed vigor. Granted that could have also been my mantra in her mind's ear, 'Climb, climb, climb, climb...'

She did, bless her little, pink heart. She climbed faster than before, and made quite the great time compared to when she climbed it to get the branch. In mere moments she was up and over the slope.

Pinkamena just laid there for a while, huddled near the edge of the slope as the sounds of rock clattering into the river played out behind us. I felt her shiver, the fear persisting through whatever sense of safety the slope could have given her. God, I felt useless. I glanced over in our imaginscape, seeing her projected self mirroring her huddled, shivering physical form.

... I would earn that trust.

I sidled over slightly and draped a foreleg over her shoulders. I knew better than to ask the idiotic question of 'are you okay.' I was better than that. I would be better than that. She didn't need questions. She needed reassurance. "I'm here for you Pinks. I'm here for you." She perked up at my words, her imagined self looking towards me, and hugged me once again. I didn't miss a beat that time, and returned the hug. "Now, how about we go get that rockball?"

She looked up from our hug, confusion plain on her face. "What do you mean? It's gotta be buried by now."

I gave her a confident smile, which hid my own misgivings on the poor rockball's condition. "We have to at least look. We didn't come all this way and start a rockslide to give up now... Impossible burial notwithstanding." That seemed to bring a small smile to her face, fear having vanished for the time being.

She gave a quick nod. "I-I hope you're right... I don't want Limestone to still be angry at me." What. That little comment gave me a mental stall, but she gave her attention back to her physical body, and stood up from her huddled position.

She took a calming breath and slowly made her way to the slopes edge, like a student fearing what grade lay upon the other side of the paper. As she peered over the edge she closed her eyes, which I admit did annoy me. Just look, please, it was killing me enough as it was that my advice led to Pinkamena's first brush with death, no matter how distant it was. Just get it over with and see if Limestone would continue to be stone cold.

A breath in, a breath out, once more in, and she opened her eyes wide! Oh, thank god the rockslide missed the rockball. Honestly by quite a large margin if I was honest. A quick survey of the altered landscape revealed that the rockslide had stuffed up the river, leaving the rockball in a small puddle. 'Uh, was this river important or anything?'

I shouldn't have said that. "Oh, no... What if it is? Was? Oh no, oh no..."

Good going me, you broke the happy. 'Now don't get your tail into a tizzle, rockball first, worrying later.'

I wasn't sure as to the effectiveness of my advice, but it at least put her mind onto doing something before lamenting in horror at what we both hath wrought onto the poor little river.

She heeded my advice and slid down the slope once more, glancing at the pile of rubble as she trotted to the rockball. "That, ah, was too close." Upon closer inspection the rubble wall wasn't a complete block. While it stopped most of the flow to allow Pinkamena to easily walk around the rockball, steady, if small, streams of water were pouring between the cracks between rocks. And, ah, our poor branch that so valiantly volunteered for the rockball rescue, it was trapped like a lion underneath a pile of logs. Only a bit reversed I guess. It tried either way.

'Maybe not as close as it could have been, luckily.'

Pinkamena trotted next to the rockball and began to push against it, rather easily slipping it out of its dip. That was also the first time I got a clear look at the rockball. It was indeed quite round, not bowling ball round though. What surprised me the most was that it was basically a third of Pinkamena in size, maybe half. How on ear- well, I guess Equestria, did she kick that all the way to the river? Normal ball maybe, bu-but it was solid rock.

I guess it didn't matter in the end. At least we got the rockball back in a relatively short time. Though... the river was a big bummer.

I saw Pinkamena's vision flit from the rockball to the slope. 'Think you could kick the thing up there without going overboard?'

Pinkamena tilted her head before nodding. "Yeah, I can do that." She quickly got into position and gave the rockball a swift kick that easily sent the rockball up and over the slope.

Wow. Rockfarm does a filly good.

Pinkamena turned her attention back to the impromptu dam we had created. "We can't just leave the river like this. Can we?"

'I mean. We can. We just probably shouldn't. I guess we should try and dislodge one of the bigger rocks, cause a chain reaction. Less risk of getting caught by tumbling rocks.'

"I don't know." Huh? Okay, guess I was a tad shocked she didn't just agree with me from the get go. Kinda glad she didn't, I realized, I didn't want to accidentally turn Pinkie into a puppet for my uses. Damnit, I almost did the thing. I had to be on the watch for that in the future, I decided. A puppet can't laugh properly after all. Alright, that was enough being edgy to last til Pinks was a teenager, I had to get back to the matter at hoof hand.

'Alright, hit me with your idea. What should we push first?'

She trotted lightly over to the branch that was jutting from the rubble. "I think we should move this first."

'Not to undermine your decision making, but may I ask why? I'd think the rocks would be pressing down on it too hard.'

"I don't know. I just have a feeling about that branch right now."

Pinkie Sense. Stinking Pinkie Sense, it had to be! Or maybe I was overreacting to nothing. Would need to be on the lookout for Pinkie Sense development in the future. Either way, believing Pinkamena at every whim could also prove dangerous. A balance must be struck. Later. 'Well, you should trust your gut from time to time. Go for it, just be careful and don't be crushed. I don't want to see what being between a rock and the even bigger rock that is the planet would look like.'

Before I even finished she had set her teeth into the branches bark and started to pull. And she continued to pull, branch hardly moving at all. 'Think you might wanna switch targets.'

"Noh! I'ff almost goht ith!" I seriously doubted that. At least until the branch just whooshed right out of the rocks like its planet needed it. "Wah!"

The branch practically flew off to who knows where, mainly unknown because the boulders were quite angry at our branch heist and moved to make us pay. Luckily Pinkamena didn't require any prompt to shoot up the slope once more, yet again, as if she were using stairs, she had gotten so good at it.

'Ya think all these rocks coming after ya is them seeking revenge over the farm?'

She ignored my comment, rude, and looked towards the river, a smile blossoming upon her muzzle. I'd have clapped if I hadn't been busy sighing in relief. The river was flowing again, maybe not exactly as it once did, but flow it did. With more rocks jutting from its sometimes shallow waters but Pinkamena did it.

"I did it."

'Good job Pinks. Rockball acquired, river returned, and nary a scratch or splash on ya.'

"Hah, that was kind of fun." She was breathing a bit heavily. I couldn't blame her, one and a half mortal situations while in the search for a toy ball to placate an angered sister would be harsh for anyone. And proves I was, indeed, in a cartoon in my opinion.

'Welp. Should probably get the rockball a rolling. Ain't gonna be dusk much longer'

I think she yawned, I wasn't too sure. I myself may have started to become tired as well, however that works, for voice beings. "That's a good idea."

She gently rolled the rockball along with her nose, getting good distance per nose push. Other than that I didn't notice too much. I guess I was even more tired than I thought, as I just kinda ghosted a bit, not taking too much in or saying anything.

Before I knew it, we were nearing the rockfarm, a quaint little cottage all things considered. But, any admiring I was doing was interrupted by a sudden shout, "Pinkamena! Where were you?!"

I felt Pinkamena tense at the filly's shout. "U-uh, hey Limestone."

The gray filly stalked up to us, a confused glare on her face. "What were you doing? Ma was getting worried!"

Pinkamena perked up a little and pushed the rockball front and forward. "I went to find the rockball I-I lost."

I saw Limestone's face change, still a bit of a glare but something else mixed in that I couldn't quite discern. "Oh. Uh." She rubbed the back of her head with a hoof. "I guess, I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I didn't expect you to run off looking for it like that. I sort of thought you were avoiding me." Good, Limestone wasn't a complete jerk at least. Short temper but well meaning it would seem.

Pinkamena smiled at Limestone's response, glad her sister was forgiving, and even sorry. "Oh, it's alright Limestone. At least I-"

I knew what she was going to say. She had no reason not to say it. She was going to tell Limestone about me, and that was bad. I didn't know exactly why I thought it was bad, but running up to someone and saying 'Oh hey, I ran down by the river and developed a voice in my head!' would be a bad thing. Best case scenario would be Limestone thinking she broke her sister's mind.

My mind raced with worst case scenarios. Mental hospitals, Pinkamena being ostracized. Worse.

I had to do something right then and there!

And, I'll admit it. I-eeee, kinda panicked. 'Don't tell them about me!' I felt her tense again, her words fumbling as I spoke in her mind. Mistake was made, that was true. It required elaboration. 'Just not yet! Explain later, after formulating plans. Just- please, trust me on this!'

I held my non existent lungs in suspense as I waited for her to continue her sentence. Before she did Limestone interjected, "Uh, Pinkamena?"

The filly in question shook her head lightly. "Oh, sorry. I was just thinking over how I got the rockball back! Got a lot of exercise looking for it."

Limestone tilted her head, a small smile working its way onto her face. "I don't think you need so much exercise, Pinkamena, I mean you almost missed supper." She moved her head back, kinda gesturing towards the house. "Come on, let's head inside before ma burns supper out of worry."

She began towards the house, Pinkamena slowly following behind. Pinkamena turned her head away and whispered to me, worry evident in her voice, "Mena?"

'I'm sorry for shouting. I'll explain once I won't be distracting to you. Don't want to make your family worried about you.' She nodded and followed Limestone with more vigor.

As she followed I let my mind wander. I mainly pondered on what to do about the 'me' situation. How would we broach the subject of me to the Pie family? How would they take me? I would need to formulate something, if only just a response to any suspicions that might arise. If they find out about me, either by a mistake on our part or us actually telling them we would need to be able to placate any fears or worries they would have of me.

Either way, the rockfarm was my foreseeable future, and I would have to learn to live there. I would also need to find a way to make up to Pinkamena for yelling at her like that. That was rude. One less depressing thought did enter my mind as we crossed the cottage threshold: I wonder what the rest of the family would be like?