3. If I Speak Without Emotion
“I’m back,” Dash announced. As she walked in, she noticed the painted wall from the test was still sitting on the stage.
“And?” Rarity asked.
“I dropped her off at Sugarcube Corner. She seemed like she could take care of herself, so I didn’t stay.”
“I suppose that’s best for now… Thank goodness the Cakes are still on vacation.”
“How’s Twilight?” Dash asked.
“Upset.”
“Well, duh. I knew that.”
“Yes, but you know Twilight. Applejack has been attempting to comfort her ever since you left, but it isn’t doing much good.”
Dash glanced around. “Fluttershy come back yet?”
Rarity shook her head. “None of us have seen her since she ran off.”
“And, uhm, what about you?”
“I’ve been better, dear.”
Rainbow floated over and sat on the bench next to Rarity. She reached over to put a hoof on the unicorn’s shoulder, but was interrupted by a door being flung open. Twilight stormed out of it, Applejack a few steps behind her.
“Twilight, come back!” Applejack shouted.
“Just because you keep saying it doesn’t make it true, Applejack.” Twilight’s eyes were still puffy, but she managed to trot towards the exit in a mostly-straight line.
“It’s not your fault!”
Twilight spun back to face Applejack.
“You heard that clone! I was the judge! I was the one deciding who stayed and who didn’t! I was the one who cast the ‘back-from-where-you-came’ spells. I was the one who made doubly sure the subjects couldn’t be retrieved with magic. So stop lying to me!” Twilight spun around again and ran out the door.
“I wasn’t lyin’,” Applejack muttered.
“Oh? Then whose fault do you think it was?” Rainbow asked skeptically.
“It wasn’t anypony’s fault, Rainbow Dash. You should know that.”
“Well, it’s like Twilight said earlier, you know? Blaming that fake Pinkie would be a lot easier…”
Rarity and AJ exchanged a glance.
“Rainbow…” Rarity put a hoof on Dash’s shoulder. “Grief doesn’t work that way.”
Rainbow’s wings drooped slightly. “I know that…”
Rarity pulled Dash into a proper hug.
“There’s no need to hold it in,” Rarity said softly.
Dash didn’t return the hug. “I’m not holding anything in.”
“Not even a little?” Rarity asked.
“You don’t gotta pretend with us, sugarcube.”
Rainbow squirmed out of Rarity’s grip. “It’s not that. I love Pinkie Pie. A lot. It’s just…”
Rarity leaned in. “‘Just’ what?”
Rainbow looked away, rubbed her shoulder, unsure how to put it. “It just…it doesn’t feel like she’s gone.”
Twilight kept running in no direction in particular. Nopony was awake this time of night. The city was practically empty as she ran, aimlessly going through street after street. Streetlights and moonlight were her only companions. She didn’t expect to crash into somepony, let alone Fluttershy.
“Oh, uhm, sorry.” Fluttershy instinctively swept her hair in front of her face. She hastily wiped her eyes, not that it had much effect. She pushed the bag she had been carrying behind her back.
Twilight sniffed. “Fluttershy!? What are you doing here? Were you coming to help us decide what to do with the fake Pinkie?”
“Oh, uhm, well, sort of. I guess…”
“We didn’t decide anything. We just cried a lot and finally stuck her in Sugarcube Corner until tomorrow.” Twilight suddenly buried herself in Fluttershy’s coat, both of them collapsing onto the street. “Oh, Fluttershy, I can’t believe I was so stupid. This whole mess is all my fault…!” Twilight felt some of her tears and mucous smear onto Fluttershy's coat. She made a mental note to apologize for it later.
Fluttershy gently stroked Twilight’s mane. “There, there, Twilight. It’ll all be…okay.”
Twilight missed the uneven enunciation. “How can you say that!? One of our friends is gone forever because of me!” When she turned to look at Fluttershy’s face, Twilight saw something out of the corner of her eye.
Twilight sat upright. “Fluttershy, what’s in that bag?”
“Oh, uhm, it’s just a housewarming gift…”
“For who?”
“…Pinkie?”
“What!? Are you actually suggesting we let that fake stay here!?”
“Well, you said nopony decided what to do with her, and you haven’t, uhm, gotten rid of her…yet…”
“Well, yes, but…” Twilight was reminded of her outburst at town hall. Magic would’ve been faster. “I don’t think…”
“Trust me, Twilight, I thought about it a lot.” Fluttershy picked up the bag, and Twilight finally noticed her eyes were more than a little puffy. “She may not be the real Pinkie Pie, but she’s still a pony. And she’s a lot better than having no Pinkie at all…”
Twilight wanted to state the obvious, but she couldn’t quite get her mouth to form the words.
Fluttershy grabbed the bag and began to walk off. “Since she’s asleep I’ll give her…I mean, Pinkie, this tomorrow. Good night, Twilight.”
Fluttershy left, but Twilight sat in the middle of the road for some time.
Well, ain't this a predicament.
This is... dark. I don't mean gore, blood, and death dark. I mean truly emotionally dark. I mean like the emotions of Katniss Everdeen before the Hunger Games dark. I mean like the slightly less action-packed scenes of the Matrix dark. I mean like Past Sins' Nyx's identity crisis dark.
...
None of these similes are making any sense, are they?
2148698
I've heard, used, and created worse similes
And darkness makes the light brighter by comparision... Right?
What is interesting now is that Pinkies friends are still having trouble seeing the differences between the clone and the original despite them being different in several key ways. An interesting and saddening thought.
Wait: if Twilight used a ‘back-from-where-you-came’ spell, it would send her to the rock farm! She's still alive! Right?
I'm going with this one lol...I hope we are right! 2247030
2247030
Exactly what I was thinking!
2247030>>2249458>>2248516No, she came from her mother's uterus so..............
2249998 Awkward.
Back-from-where-you-came-spell? then shouldn't pinkie be back at the rock farm?
2249998 Okay, this one is more hilarious than the saner 'rock-farm' hypothesis; disturbing yes, but hilarious.
And alas, woe to those who're mercilessly struck with the misfortune of
holding the idiot balluh, 'making really poor decision out of volition'.2259868
the real pinkie would shatter into a billion pieces and float into random foods
To be honest, it's really Twilight's fault...
2148777 I always found it more liable to make me walk into something as I stumble into the bathroom.
Twilight... you gone and messed it up.
2252526 Or if it was to return them to the mirror pool, what if going to the mirror pool with the new Pinkie might be able to retrieve the other Pinkies and test them with a better test? If the other pinkies were from an alternate universe, it could be easy or extremely hard to retrieve the original.
3458894 Given that the other Pinkies were all simply 'inferior' copies of the original Pinkie, it's unlikely that an alternate dimension is involved. Instead it seems to produce flawed copies of whatever enters the pool, so using the clone to retrieve the real Pinkie would only result in another influx of even more imperfect clones.
‘back-from-where-you-came’ spell,
Um yeah, please tell me this is a minor detail you missed and not important to your story because this really makes it hard for me to enjoy the story when the plothook is staring me in the face >.>
2247030 or to her moms womb, which means baby pinkie XD
3519848 well my theory is that the original has to Remember that they Are the Original, otherwise the spell would work on them like it would the copies. Since Pinkie was having a serious identity crisis, presumably by the sheer number of pinkies around, she lost her memory as the true pinkie. Feel free to nitpick this theory as much as you want though, I'm still just as confused as you
I hope you're not going to cheat and not actually have Pinkie be dead just to avoid dealing with the whole thing. I like Pinkie, but I like sadfics more. This is a really good sadfic so far.
fc01.deviantart.net/fs71/f/2012/363/c/3/clapping_pony_icon___fluttershy_by_taritoons-d5pl2gh.gif
2252526 *Poof!* Hey! I know this place, this is my old bedroom! And look, it still has the creaky floors!!" *creak creak creak creak creak*
"Sounds like our daughter's home."
"Eeeeeyup." *drinks coffee nonchalantly*
I'm a little conflicted, but mostly I lean in Fluttershy's direction: at least there is a Pinkie.
Still, I keep wondering how it is they know for certain that Pinkie's dead. I mean, her soul could be in the Mirror Pool, just waiting for the clone Pinkie to use it and escape. Granted, they are particularly distraught, but I imagine that eventually somepony would consider the possibility.
2252526
This comment might be more than 4 years old, but it's an excellent thought and I'd love that to be how this story ends.
Plus it'd set up a sequel where the clone Pinkie has to figure out their own path in life.