Introspection

by -Hidden Identity-

Different Similarities

It was a maze in every sense of the word. The dusty sandstone walls outlined a specifically woven series of paths for Pinkie Pie to follow, a completely random assortment of sprawling, roofless hallways and short, twisty passages, all alike. Each turn, every corridor, the entirety of the maze was for her, and gave new insight upon each change of direction. Pinkie could feel her through process shift here, just as the world did previously. Instead of scaling walls effortlessly, her thoughts changed radically without any defined transition save a new direction taken. This was nothing new to Pinkie, as the majority of her life had been spent in a cascade of thought and wonder. This maze was a sort of home to her, a sort of bower to become her mental temple. She had nearly cowered away from the maze upon first glance, frightened of what may lay before her, unnerved by theory and speculation. Yet, she was Pinkie Pie, she was eager and ready to face any challenge and did not dare to over think a situation, leave that to Twilight. Although, she must admit, what some may consider to be an unnecessary quantity of consideration was a beneficial strategy and to be utilized. Funny, she thought, to have to think about what all could happen should she decide to take a certain path. Everything always turned out all right, even when mistakes were made, and she had plenty of experience in impulsive effectiveness. Sure, it could be debated that she was naught more than lucky, at best, yet luck only runs so far, and she had been running, or bounding, for a good long while.

The maze itself was, besides the aforementioned sandstone walls, entrancing. Flowers of every color she had seen, and several she hadn’t, rose from the hardened ground that formed her path. The sky had become far more vibrant in hue, the light casting itself down to warm her body and illuminate her mind. Most passages were welcoming, full of health and harmony, yet they did not stand alone in their existence. Down other potential exits lay nests of gnarled roots, displaying a tangle of thorns and briars. There were other ways that housed a quaint, white mist. Thick enough to hide the ground, yet heavy enough to let her gaze upon the path before her, giving her chance to weigh the theory of risk against the desire of release. Yet none were more harrowing than the Paths of Dusk, as she had decided to name them. At first glance they were safe enough, just a bit darker. It was not that the sun did not penetrate here, it just wasn’t as present. Shadows carved an outline of the path she had the option to take, the daemon of the maze beaconing out to her with unseen fingers. Yet, this was Pinkie Pie, and she was not overly compelled to give into temptation. Beyond all of this was the lurking feeling that she was far from alone. Her sister had informed her that the other members of her now apparently darkened family were out there as well, and had their own reasons for displeasure. Then again she had four immediate members of her family, and with one already taken care of, her Pinkie sense wasn’t exactly displaying signs of warning.

As Pinkie wandered the maze, her thoughts tended to shift towards the last time she was lost within a maze of these proportions: when Discord had turned her against her own friends and caused her to lose her love of both friendship and laughter. A travesty to her and her very being, taking away the aspects of life that made her life worth living, to her at least. There was other parts she enjoyed, granted, but…laughter. There was no debate. Could this be nothing more than a trap by Discord? One of his pranks? No…this world was too close to her, and Discord, for all of his power, did not know her past. He could, and would, weave false futures for them to follow, manipulate their minds, but this was her mind. Could he…I wonder if there was anything to eat here…these walls are quite annoying, I wish I could sum…ooh, another patch of mist. Did something just move there? I…where am I?

She was in a maze of twisty, little passages, all alike. With each turn of the corner a previous thought was cast into the gloom and recesses of her mind, yet this was her mind, so another passage would bring them back. While her mind constantly moved when she would talk to others or simply go about her day, it was rather tedious to switch thoughts without some sort of mental transition. I guess they were actually mental, she pondered, as it is my mind.

Bouncing up and down didn’t work, as a new opinion of what was an optimal method of movement arose consistently. First she walked, then she found herself running along, crawling, weaving back and forth, skipping backwards, and finally shuffling sideways before she broke out into a round clearing, complete with cascading fountain and all manner of blooming flowers.

“Well, seems you finally arrived, my dear sister.” A voice called to her from the other side of the clearing. The owner of the voice was not a surprise, as Pinkie had been, for a while now, expecting her to step forward and present the challenge that inevitably followed the greeting.

“Sister!” Pinkie cried out. Why couldn’t she remember her name? “I’m super happy to see you!”

“Save it.” The other retorted. “You think you can win me over through your incessant smiling and happiness? Oh, I’m Pinkie and I’m here to make you smile, I enjoy laughing so much, my life is so wonderful. You’re pathetic.”

“I’m sorry, sister. I didn’t ever mean to hurt any of you. I love you guys!”

“Right, yeah.”

“I do! Cross my heart and hope to fly, st—”

“Oh, just SHUT UP! I’m not interested in hearing your cute catchphrases, and you are in no position to even consider talking to me as a friend.”

Pinkie Pie glanced down in despair. She had figured that her previous sister had chased her because she was avoiding setting things right. She had Pinkie Promised herself that from then on she would be brave and face her family, and try as hard as she could to repair the damage done. The problem was, she didn’t have any idea why her family was mad at her. Leaving, she could have guessed, but her sister did admit that her family did have their own anger towards Pinkie.

“Let me clue you in, sister. I’m willing to guess that you don’t know why I am mad at you, right?” The other sneered. She was correct. “Well, it doesn’t surprise me that you don’t know. You’re not exactly the smartest pony out there. In fact, it would be pretty hard to find somepony more airheaded and generally clueless than you.”

“What? I’m not clueless, and my friends think I’m smart.”

“Really? Did your friends believe you when you were gathering instruments to fight the parasprites?”

“No, but they said they were sorry, and that they promised to listen to me from then on.”

“Uh-huh. How many times have they asked for your opinion? To solve a problem? To help out with something? Here’s a better question, how many times have they just left you out while some other pony fixes what you caused?”

Tears formed, once again, in the corners of Pinkie Pie’s eyes, yet the small voice came back to her, telling her that she was not allowed to be sad here, this was the state of happiness. She fought back her sadness and faced her sister.

“Sis, I’m sorry for what I did to you. You’re right, I don’t remember why you are mad at me, but I’m sure that you’re right in doing so. Can you forgive me? Seeing somepony who I care about sad or angry makes me sad.”

Her sister smiled. “Sorry Pinkie, but you won’t be let off that easy. Our sister may have decided to just tell you her problem, but you will have to search for mine. Notice how in this maze instead of the world shifting it’s your mind?”

“I thought this world was my mind. Does that mean my mind is inside my mind?”

Her sister blinked twice and moved on. “Anyway, in my maze it’s not the walls and world that shift, it’s your thought process.”

“It’s been doing that for a while sister, you need to learn how plan surprised better.”

“Don’t even. You don’t even…” her sister took a deep breath and continued. “The continuation of the maze is a little test. I refuse to tell you why I’m mad. Instead, you have to find the right passage, which will tell you in thought a piece of why I’m mad. Some are memories, some are ponderings, some are not to be expected. But, only the right passages will tell you why you need to say sorry, and only when you know the whole reason will I let you apologize to me and let me choose to forgive you or not.”

Her sister vanished into the maze; Pinkie stood dazed. She had to find out why her sister was mad through a collection of random thoughts and opinions, and hope she was on the right track? How could she do that? A smile slowly spread across her face as the answer came to her: randomness. Her sister said that she couldn’t solve any problem, that someone else had to fix her messes? Dear sister, you have introduced a problem that takes absolute random luck to figure out, and who to better solve a random problem than the pony who might as well have invented the idea of random.

“So it’s a game?” Pinkie Pie shouted into the maze, with no answer. It didn’t matter really, just as long as there were prizes to be found.

Comments

[Tangerine Blast]

Wow. Her sister is mean. The other one just hit her but this. Och. She hit her were it hurts.

[nethermane]

"Short, twisty passages, all alike." Nice - she should just xyzzy.

[Piquo Pie]

through

*thought