When Twilight realizes that she might have feelings for a certain pink pony, she tries to figure out why...her way. Of course hilarity ensues and Pinkie's senses just become weirder and weirder.
One morning, while Spike is drooling over a scrumptious looking gem, he is told a very confusing thing. Twilight might like Pinkie.
Her inability to form coherent sentences when the pink mare is around sure seems to lead to that assumption, but assuming isn't enough.
Twilight needs answers, and science is just the way to get them.
Spike kept his eyes on his gem treat, not really paying attention to what Twilight was panicking over. He figured it was some sort of letter dilemma that she’d gone crazy over again. “About what?” He asked, absentmindedly.
“Have you even been listening to what I’ve been telling you?”
“Uh…eheheh.” Spike answered, guiltily.
Twilight facehoofed and groaned weakly. “Oh, don’t make me say it again. I…I think I like…Pinkie Pie.” She said once again with a bit of effort.
Spike scratched his cheek with a claw. “Okay. Well, you are friends aren’t you? You should like each other, right?”
Twilight shook her head. “Not in that way, Spike. It’s…like with you and Rarity.”
“Ah, Rarity,” Spike said, sighing as he drifted into one of his daydreams about rescuing the white unicorn from some awful creature.
“Oh no you don’t, Spike. Not this time.” The lavender unicorn grumbled, shaking Spike gently to bring him back to the real world. “You need to help me figure this out.”
Spike harrumphed and crossed his arms, but gave up and sighed. “Okay okay, but what’s the problem?”
“The problem!?” Twilight shouted, beginning to pace back and forth along the wood floor. “What if Princess Celestia hears about this? She’ll probably banish me for having feelings for another mare.”
“Um, Twilight?” Spike asked, holding up one claw to try and get her attention.
“I don’t know where she’ll banish me to, but I know it probably won’t be good…maybe.”
“Twilight.” Spike tried again, but his voice was ignored.
Twilight gasped suddenly, having an awful; terrible thought. “What if she sends me to the moon like she did Princess Luna? How would I breathe up there? How did Luna stay up there for so long with no air to-”
“TWILIGHT!” Spike yelled at the top of his lungs.
The lavender unicorn jumped slightly and she turned to face Spike. “What?”
“Please don’t make another hole in the ground from your pacing.” Her number one assistant replied, pointing to the floor behind her. A gap in height was already visible from where she walked to the center of the room.
The lavender mare sighed once more and slumped to her haunches, exhausted. She stared at the floor in silence.
Spike looked upset at the miserable state Twilight was in, and walked over to rest a claw on her shoulder. “Aw, come on Twilight. I’m sure it’ll be okay.”
Twilight didn’t react to Spike’s claws on her shoulder. She just kept staring at the ground. “But in all the records there’s never been a case where two mares like one another.”
“Well…Princess Celestia is your friend and mentor…and besides, I don’t think she’d care who you like or love. Your heart is yours to give.”
Twilight sniffed and turned to face Spike. “Oh, Spike, you always know how to cheer me up.” She gave him a big hug and chuckled gladly.
“That’s what I’m here for.” Spike replied, returning the hug happily.
“Well,” Twilight said. “That solves the first problem, but this second problem I really don’t get.”
Spike pulled away from the hug to look at the unicorn. “What is it?”
“Why – out of all the ponies in Ponyville…in Equestria – do I like Pinkie?” She asked, scratching her head and blushing a bit. “She is pretty much everything I don’t believe in; her Pinkie-sense and all of her crazy antics that defy gravity and physics.”
Spike had to admit, that one was tough. He touched a claw to his chin in thought before it came to him. “Oh, maybe it’s because of that?”
“Because of what?” Twilight asked, shrugging impatiently.
“Because you don’t believe what she can do. Or gave up in trying to understand it at least.” Spike rubbed his chin again, trying to understand what he had just said himself.
Twilight pondered that. It seemed somewhat understandable to her. She wished she could say the same for that pink party pony as well. “I think that makes sense. It’s like she’s a new science for me to understand…except there’s only twitches and ear flops to go on.” Twilight giggled softly at Pinkie’s ability to sense coming danger. It was sort of a fascinating thing to her, something she still would like to comprehend further. “But even if that’s true, then how would I talk to her now? If I saw her, what would I say?”
Spike scratched his head again. “Um, hello?” He offered.
“That’s not what I had in mind.” Twilight grumbled in response. “I’m not sure how I’d be able to react the next time I-”
“La la lala la lala lalala.” A sing songie voice came from just in front of the treehouse. A voice Twilight immediately recognized as Pinkie’s.
“Oh no, quick I’ve gotta hide. Tell Pinkie I’m not here.” Twilight whispered, suddenly speeding up the stairs and using her magic to teleport herself into her room. The door closed shut shortly after.
“But what am I supposed to-?” Spike asked in a panic. Before he could finish, he heard a distinct knock on the door. It had a musical tone to it which calmed the dragon down a bit, although not enough to know what to say once he answered the door. Willing his legs to move, Spike made for the door. He gripped the handle and opened it to find Pinkie Pie smiling away patiently.
“Hiya, Spike. Is Twilight home?” She asked, still in that sing songie tone of hers.
“Uh, well, actually…no. She’s not.” Spike gulped nervously. Good, there’s the first part over with. “Twilight’s out, um…doing some grocery shopping.”
“Oh.” Pinkie replied, sounding a little bit disappointed. Not too noticeably to Spike, but it still hurt to lie to a friend.
“Yeah,” He continued. “She noticed this morning how we were out of a lot of ingredients for stuff, and decided to go get some more.”
“Oooh, that sounds like fun. I love ingredients; especially if it’s for stuff. There’s all kinds of different sorts of stuff too; like candy and chocolate and punch, yum.” Pinkie smiled brightly and looked at Spike. “Well, if you see Twilight, could you remind her that we had planned to hang out today? I think she might have forgotten.”
Spike nodded his understanding. “Oh, okay. Will do.” He responded, standing up straight and saluting.
Pinkie giggled and ruffled up the dragon’s scales. “That’s a good dragon. Thanks Spike. See you later! Whenever that is!” With that, the magenta maned mare bounced out of the treehouse and into town.
Spike sighed in relief. Something about the smile Pinkie gave worried him. He hoped she wasn’t onto him. He also hoped his lie hadn’t hurt her feelings too bad. Shaking those thoughts away, he turned and raced up the stairs to Twilight’s room. “Twilight? Did you hear that?”
The door creaked open and a sad looking Twilight poked her head out. “Yeah. I can’t believe I forgot we had planned to spend the day together. I hope she wasn’t too upset. I just don’t know what to do right now.”
“I dunno, Twilight. She seemed really excited to spend time with you.”
Twilight stepped out of the room entirely and nodded gently. “I should see if I can catch up with her. A promise is a promise and she’s still my friend.”
Spike grinned gladly. “Great. Have a good time, Twilight. I’m going to get back to drooling over this delicious looking gem.”
Twilight giggled and hugged him again. “Thanks for all the help, Spike. Don’t know what I’d do without you.” Before Spike could even think of giving an answer, the lavender unicorn was already out the door.
*****
Twilight trotted along the pathway, heading into the town square to look for Pinkie. She thought hopefully that the pink mare hadn’t gone too far. The trouble was, the little pony was very difficult to keep track of; and had a habit of disappearing and reappearing randomly.
The lavender unicorn made her way into the marketplace, and began to look around for Pinkie. “Have you seen Pinkie Pie come through at all?”
“Not since this morning,” An earth pony working a stall said. “She hopped by before, saying that she had to meet somepony for a big surprise today.”
Twilight looked surprised enough to hear that. “Oh, thank you.” She felt worse about hiding from Pinkie now than she did before.
The unicorn kept searching for the pony, poking her head into Sugarcube Corner. She asked the Cakes when they’d last seen her, but came up with the same thing as before.
Disappointed, Twilight exited the shop with her head hung low. How am I going to find Pinkie here? And…even if I do…what am I going to say to her? “Ooph!” The lavender pony grunted, being tackled to the ground by something soft.
“There you are, Twilight! I’ve been looking allll over for you.” Pinkie shouted happily, as she stood on top of Twilight. “Spike told me you were grocery shopping. I guess you didn’t really have much luck though.” The pink mare giggled, glancing around the area for any bags.
As Pinkie spoke, Twilight lay back stunned. She had been thinking of what to say to Pinkie - like talking about the weather, or about what was new since the last time the two spoke - but now that she was here, the lavender mare couldn’t say anything. Blushing at how close she was to Pinkie, Twilight attempted (unsuccessfully, mind you) to wiggle her way out from under the earth pony.
“…And anyway, after I beat the dragon that was rampaging through the city a while ago I had nothing to do. So I decided to look for you, and here you are!” Pinkie shouted cheerfully.
She was still smiling from ear to ear and talking about…some story Twilight hadn’t heard the beginning of. Most likely because she was daydreaming about how cute Pinkie looked- Aagh!
“Twilight? Twiiilight, yoohoo!”
“Huh?” Twilight answered distractedly, still locked on the pony atop her.
“Did you forget about our date?”
Twilight heard that. “What? D-d-date?!” She stammered, crawling out from under the pink mare.
“Uh, yeah. Remember? We had planned to hang out today? We set it up a week ago, because you had a schedule this week for tests and brainy stuff and had to make sure you could squeeze me in.”
I would like to squeeze you. Yaah! Twilight shook her head to rid herself of that thought. “Oh, right. Sorry about that.”
“Mm, it’s okay. Friends do forget about stuff. Even me. Like one time-” Pinkie began, but Twilight quickly shoved a hoof in her mouth.
“I know, once you forgot that you had put that cake in the oven in Sugarcube Corner and it almost burned the sweet’s shop down.”
“Yep. How did you know?” Pinkie asked, taking Twilight’s hoof in her own and moving it away from her mouth.
“I…don’t know.” The unicorn answered, immensely confused now.
“Well, that’s right. Fortunately, Mr. Cake had just bought a fire extinguisher thingie and luckily taught me how to use it. So I ended up cleaning up my own mess that time and they didn’t even know it happened.”
“Uh…uhhh,” Twilight said, losing what voice she had left from before.
Pinkie tilted her head to the side cutely. “Twilight? You feeling okay? You’re not usually this untalkative. Most of the time you’re going on about some big test you have to pass or lesson you have to learn. The only time you aren’t so talkative is when we’re in the library reading books, and I don’t see any books around here.”
Swallowing hard, Twilight willed herself to speak. “I-I…h-have a s-sore throat?” She lied.
“Oh no, that’s not good. You must be getting sick, and a pony as busy as you can never be sick. Come on, I know just the thing.” Pinkie grabbed Twilight by the hoof and galloped off into the marketplace.
Twilight hated that she lied again to the pink pony, but nothing else managed to come out of her mouth. Besides, Pinkie was holding her hoof now and trying to make her feel better. Of course she wasn’t really sick, but that wasn’t the point.
Pinkie weaved around the market, dodging ponies and stalls this way and that – being careful so Twilight didn’t get hurt – buying some honey and a lemon, picking out a glass of hot water and finally a spoon along the way before trotting out the other side to an empty bench in the park.
“Okay, I’ve got everything I need. Just hold on a sec, okay Twilight?” Pinkie let go of Twilight’s hoof and took a spoonful of the honey, dipping it into the glass of hot water. Setting that down she took the lemon, tapped it against the side of the bench twice and cracked it in half, letting the lemon juice pour into the glass. “There ya go! The honey should have all melted into the water, so go ahead and have a sip.”
Blushing at the way Pinkie was smiling at her, and overlooking the fact that she just cracked open a lemon, she wordlessly took the glass in her hooves and took a sip of the beverage Pinkie made. Flavor – sweet and satisfying to her taste buds – washed over her. It was delicious. Even though she wasn’t sick, it still managed to cheer her up and brighten her day. “Whoa.”
“What did I tell ya? Delish or what?”
“Th-thank you, Pinkie. It’s really good.”
“Not a problem. It’s called lemon and honey. My Granny Pie always made it for me when I was sick. It made all my sad, sick feelings happy again.”
Twilight smiled up at the pink pony as she sat on her haunches. She looked back down at the glass and took another sip. For the longest time, the two just sat in silence. Pinkie was actually sitting quietly, watching with approval as the lavender pony finished her magic drink. The silence was beginning to weigh on Twilight though. She had to say something. “Thank you Pinkie, for going through all that for me.”
“Aww, it’s alright Twilight. Happy to help.”
“Uhh, so…what did you have in mind…for our…date?” Twilight asked nearly choking on the last word, her face turned bright red.
“Hmm, well, the world famous Equestrian Carnival is in town all week. I thought we could go and ride some fantastic rides. Oh, and eat lots and lots of candy.”
Twilight stood up and chuckled. Typical Pinkie Pie. “Sounds like fun. Let’s go.”
“Oh, but what about your groceries?” Pinkie asked, suddenly remembering what she thought lead Twilight into town.
“I can always do those later. And a promise is a promise, right?”
“Right.” Pinkie nodded. “You have learned well, my apprentice.” She giggled loudly.
*****
The carnival was huge, even from a distance. It was no small wonder it was called, “Equestria’s Biggest Show Ever!” It was the perfect time to have it in Ponyville too. It was just coming into the summer months around the town, so everypony seemed to be there today to enjoy the fun and splendor of the largest mobile carnival in Equestria.
“What ride should we go on first, Twilight?” Pinkie asked as she bounced along next to her lavender friend.
“I’m not sure Pinkie. Whichever one you want to go on I guess.” Twilight responded, trying not to look at Pinkie’s flank. She wasn’t having much success.
“Alrightie then, let’s go on the roller coaster!” Pinkie shouted, hopping in front of said ride as the coaster zoomed past with many loud screams trailing after it.
Twilight gulped. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. “A-are you sure we should be starting on such a…fast ride?”
“Uh huh. Trust me; carnivals are a part of my thing. The biggest and bestest rides should always go first; especially the speedy ones. You don’t want to be going on the roller coaster with a tummy full of sweets, no siree ma’am.”
“O-okay, lead the way.” Twilight squeaked.
“Okie dokey lokie!” Pinkie sauntered over to the entrance and waited for the coaster to stop. Twilight followed slowly behind, trying to find the courage to go through with this.
Come on Twilight. This is Pinkie you are with. It’s worth it…even on a scary ride. Hey, if-if it’s scary…then I might be able to hold on to Pinkie the whole way. Twilight shook her head. No, I refuse to think that way. I’m still not sure if I do…why is this so hard?
“Twilight? You coming?” Pinkie asked, shaking the confused mare from her warring thoughts.
“Huh?” Twilight looked up from the ground to find that the roller coaster was stopped in the station. Pinkie sat in the front, waving over to the unicorn happily. “Oh, right.”
“Hurry up or you’ll miss your chance.” She shouted.
And we don’t want that, Twilight chuckled nervously to herself. “Coming!” She trotted up to the car and hopped in. Strapping herself in, she smiled at the pink mare beside her.
Within minutes the roller coaster began to move forward. This part wasn’t so bad, Twilight thought. But she knew this was only the beginning and they hadn’t started climbing vertically yet.
“This is so exciting. I bet I’ll be able to spot my house from up at the top,” Pinkie said, not taking notice of Twilight’s building anxiety.
Just think of the physics involved here. The steep vertical ascent is what gives the coaster the momentum it needs to speed to the next hill and each subsequent hill causes the car to accelerate further because of the gravity constantly pushing down on the cars, preparing for the loops and spins of the ride. Twilight exhaled and remembered that she had shut her eyes to imagine the ride playing out in her mind.
“Umm, Twilight? Are you alright?” Pinkie asked, seeing the uneasiness in the unicorn’s eyes.
“I…I’m…” They were at the top of the ascent. Twilight peered down at the ground far below them and suddenly felt nauseous. “I’m af-fraid of falling.”
Pinkie looked surprised. “Really? Well then, why’d you come up here?”
“Because I…” She began, but stopped herself. Twilight couldn’t tell her why, and she wasn’t going to lie to her again, so she just said nothing. She tried not to think about what will happen once gravity took over here.
“Well, if you’re afraid of falling, then why don’t you just teleport down to the ground?” Pinkie asked. She seemed reluctant to offer that piece of advice, but it was the friendly thing to do.
“R-really? You don’t mind?”
“Of course not, silly. Why would I?” Suddenly the car started to move again, down. “Hurry Twilight.”
Twilight shut her eyes, but stopped herself. I came all the way up here; I might as well face two fears at once. Opening her eyes again, the lavender mare smiled softly and still a little worriedly. “No Pinkie, I’m up here and it’s about time I faced this fear.”
Pinkie didn’t have time to respond before the roller coaster took off down the track. She was already yelling and shouting gleefully, seeming to have no fear whatsoever.
Twilight closed her eyes tight and looked away at first, hearing the screams of the other ponies as they enjoyed the ride. Eventually though she couldn’t keep her eyes shut anymore and opened them. They were at the first loop; right at the top, before the coaster careened down again. She glanced over at the earth pony, who was smiling. The smile was contagious it seemed, because Twilight soon had a grin of her own. Before she knew it, she herself was enjoying the ride; screaming and shouting as the car turned this way and that and around and around the many loops of the track.
Once the ride was over, both ponies were laughing and giggling away. The two disembarked and trotted over to a nearby stall.
“That was superific! Wow Twilight, you did it. You faced your fear,” Pinkie said.
Twilight chuckled, still a bit shaky from the ride. “Yeah, I guess I did. Well, I couldn’t have done it without you.” When she said that, the unicorn realized how true that statement was. She did help her out a great deal, and she imagined it was because of her elusiveness to be understood. And that no matter what sticky mess Twilight got herself into, Pinkie would be there to pull her out of it.
“Aww, that’s nice of you to say, but I didn’t do anything. You did it on your own.”
Twilight could only smile at the cotton candy maned pony, envying her always cheerful attitude.
“Now, let’s have something to eat,” Pinkie said, turning to face the owner of the stall they were leaning on. “Two please!”
The pony nodded. “Coming right up.” He disappeared into the back and grabbed two bags of cotton candy. Trotting back to the little window he gave the treats to Pinkie. “Here ya go.”
“Thanks. Here Twilight.” She passed one bag over to the unicorn, who accepted it with a smile.
“Thank you, Pinkie.” Twilight took a hoofful of the sugar treat and munched on it. “So where to next?”
Pinkie rubbed her chin, taking a quick glance around the vicinity. “Hmmm. Well, we could go on the tea pot ride, or the ferris wheel, or the bumper cars…if you’re not too chicken to face the Pinkie Pie.”
“Oh yeah? You are on, Pinkie.”
*****
The two ponies selected their weapons: a lavender colored car for Twilight and a pink one for Pinkie. They hopped into the cars and prepared to do battle. After a few minutes the pony in charge of the bumper cars turned the power on and let the two ponies go.
“You ready Twilight?” Pinkie asked, squinting in concentration from across the arena.
Twilight smirked. “You bet I am.” Stepping on the pedal, the unicorn zoomed forward and careened into Pinkie’s car. Both machines pushed away from each other, and the pink car hit the wall.
“Hey, you’ll pay for that.”
Before Twilight could react the earth mare rammed into her car, causing her to fly backward. The car twirled around and around, making Twilight quite dizzy by the time it had stopped.
“Who-ooa,” The lavender pony said, as her head swayed in all directions.
“There’s more where that came from.” Pinkie’s car zoomed forth and headed straight for the still dazed unicorn. Just as she reached her target, the pink pony spun the car around and backed into the machine.
“Ooph!” Twilight said, having once again been pushed into the wall by the curly maned mare. Her eyes widened. “Uh oh.” But she had no time to react, only time to brace herself.
“Incoming!” Pinkie cried with the car at full speed. It smashed into Twilight’s car, a loud crash emanating shortly after as the two vehicles flew off in different directions. They spun out of control, making both ponies very dizzy, until at last and after many bumps against the walls, the two bumper cars came grinding to a halt in the center of the arena.
The ponies were facing each other, their noses almost touching. They both peered down at their respective rides and back at one another, falling swiftly into fits and giggles.
“That was awesome!” Pinkie screamed between her laughter.
“I agree with you there Pinkie. That was a lot of fun.”
The two friends stepped out of their vehicles and headed for the exit. By that time it was already afternoon, but both ponies still felt like having fun. They decided to try a few more rides before calling it a night. Twilight suggested a water shooting game. First prize was a plush teddy bear, but Twilight couldn’t keep her aim. Pinkie’s aim, on the other hoof, was true, and she managed to win the bear. She proceeded to give the plush toy to Twilight, who blushed in response before accepting the gift. Before they continued on to the next destination, the two had lunch; each a cupcake and a daffodil and daisy sandwich. After that Pinkie thought horseshoes would be a fun activity for them. Neither of them really kept score, but both assumed they were pretty good for beginners. At the end of the day, the two were tired and ready to trot on to their homes.
“That was a ton of fun, Twilight. We should do that again sometime,” Pinkie said while they walked along the dirt path.
Twilight nodded in agreement. “Well, there might not be a big carnival-”
“BigGEST carnival.”
“Yes, that. There may not be something like that every day, but I would love to spend more time with you soon.”
“Hurray! When’s good for you?”
“Hmm. Well as I recall, I have studying all this week,” Pinkie looked saddened at this. “But I do have some free time tomorrow morning. My studies are a bit lighter and set for the afternoon. I’d be happy if you came by.”
Pinkie visibly cheered up hearing that and began to bounce sporadically. “Whoopie! That sounds super-duper! I’ll be there tomorrow. Ooh, and we can have so much fun in that time. Oh I’ve already started to plan what we can do.”
Twilight chuckled. “I’m sure you have.”
*****
When they reached Sugarcube Corner, Pinkie hugged Twilight and said goodnight. She waved to Twilight until she was out of sight and shut the door. The lavender unicorn then let her tiredness show and barely made it through the door to the library before collapsing on the wooden floor.
Spike heard the thud and rushed down the steps of the upper floor to see the mare. “Are you alright, Twilight? How did your search for Pinkie go?”
The exhausted pony smiled blissfully, and lifted her head off the ground. “Great, Spike. It went great.”
Clank clank splutter rumble bang crash! “What is that noise?” Asked a grumpy looking baby dragon from under the covers of his little bed. He looked up from his spot and saw the emptiness of Twilight’s own bed. Quite empty, it seemed. “Twilight?” Grudgingly, Spike dragged himself out of his comfy resting place which called his name, and made for the door handle. Pulling that to, he carried himself down the stairs and into the living area of the hollowed out treehouse. Nopony here, He thought. Better check down in the cellar. Clank rumble crash slam rumble! Went the noises again. Spike’s head was already beginning to ache from the vibrations, which seemed to be getting louder every downward step he took of the house. However, once he reached the bottom step all noises ceased. For a moment the little dragon supposed he could now just walk right back up the stairs, pretending that nothing had woken him from his perfect dream, and slip cozily back into his bed for the rest of the night. Unfortunately, somepony had the complete opposite idea in mind; for the noises: bing clang garble bang crash! Started yet again and Spike did not slip cozily anywhere, but dragged his scaled legs further into the darker area of the treehouse. He thought about calling out the unicorn’s name. Simple would it have been if he did and he wouldn’t have to be sneaking around in the dark anymore, but something about the room made him shiver and unable to make an audible sound. The atmosphere around him seemed heavy, almost tangible; like you could just reach out and grab it, put it in a jar and hide it away for a rainy day. Spike didn’t do this of course; he didn’t have a jar and didn’t feel like going to fetch one at the time, so he continued on his search for the lavender pony. Slip bang gong smash bash smash! Again the noises were heard, never once being of the same clatter; but Spike could tell that it was coming from his right. A light was emanating from the spot of which he turned to face, so he decided to head in that direction. Why is this happening? Spike asked himself worriedly. He rubbed his claws together nervously as he walked. I was having a very pleasant dream just a few seconds ago, and now this. The lower room was very cluttered with old junk. ‘Old junk’ as Spike called it anyway; Twilight referred to it, immediately after, as a collection of objects she had not yet found the importance of yet, but of course would eventually and then use it for said purpose. Spike then, being a dragon of few words, reasoned that that was far too much to remember. As the purple and green lizard was thinking of such things as what to call this messy mess of a basement (a curious and rather coincidental title beginning with the letter ‘m’), he came to a stop outside the light. He spotted Twilight in the warm glow of the lamp dangling from the rather high ceiling. After a few moments of thought to why Twilight was down here, standing in the dim light of a dangling lamp light in the middle of the night (which explanation for didn’t get very far), Spike ran up to her and looked at what she was doing. “Twilight?” He said finally. “Hm?” The unicorn replied, seeming to be coming off of a trance to notice the little dragon beside her. “Oh, Spike, it’s you. What are you doing down here? It’s the middle of the night.” “That’s what I was going to ask you. What’s going on and what is with all the racket?” Spike shouted impatiently. The pony didn’t pose an answer to his reasonable question, but Spike noticed she was glancing at something. Turning his attention to the something, he figured it was some sort of machine; used for what, he couldn’t tell. It looked like an old gaming machine to him. “What is that?” He decided to ask. This caught Twilight’s attention, as she took her eyes away from the strange device to look upon the baby dragon. “Oh, it’s a probability machine.” She answered clearly. “A what?” “It's really just a computer, actually.” She stated with a giggle at Spike's confusion. And at the raise of Spike’s left eyebrow, Twilight continued her explanation, “But I’m going to use it to calculate the probability of Pinkie’s twitches. I’ll have to make a chart of all known Pinkie shudders and shakes and track her movement everywhere. My data collected from the last time wasn't enough for it to calculate a proper histogram from the frequencies of her twitches. Now how would I get her to go along with me the entire time?” I’m guessing that to her I wouldn’t even need a reason to tag along. “So you’re still on that. You woke me up from a wonderful dream for this?” “It’s not the same, Spike. Not really. I’m not trying to disprove the existence of her sense; I’m just trying to further my understanding of it. I want to see if there is a pattern to which senses come, at what time and in what frequency and percentage.” “Uhh…you lost me.” Ignoring Spike’s complaints, Twilight kept talking in a wistful manner. “This time though, I might invite her along as I conduct research on other animals to see how Pinkie reacts to outside stimuli. Hopefully I can get some more clear evidence of scientific anomaly from this set of experiments.” Then Twilight cleared her throat. “Spike, I’ve decided to cancel my planned study day today. I have to figure this out.” This was what Spike could muster to say from that very odd statement, “What?” “Now I just need to think of a way I can test Pinkie without her knowing that I am testing her.” “But…Twilight? You’ve never cancelled a study session before.” Spike scratched his head in disbelief. “Wait. Maybe I can ask her to help me with some experiments I’m doing on the other ponies. And if anything strange happens to them, hopefully her sense will come up to warn them. That way I won’t be hurt.” Twilight nodded at that sense of logic and turned off the machine. “Oh, what were you saying Spike?” The dragon was still coming to terms with the fact that Twilight had said she wasn’t going to be studying, so all he could say was, “Huh?” Twilight giggled. “Come on, Spike. You need to go to bed, and I need to find some way to get Pinkie to accompany me.” “Bed?” Spike echoed. Now that was a word he understood. He didn’t really hear the rest of the sentence around the word, but hoped it went something like: Please, Spike, go to bed or Here Spike, your bed is ready. All Twilight did was magic Spike onto her back and trot back up the stairs to the main floor, up the second flight and into her room. Levitating the dragon into his little bed, she wished him a goodnight and wrapped his blanket around him. Within a few minutes Spike was fast asleep again, and Twilight was prepared for bed as well. She stood for a moment in deep thought, before making for her bed. Slipping under the covers she closed her eyes, but her brain was still very active. The inner machinations of her mind were now at work, finding a reason for her to invite Pinkie to such a peculiar activity for an excitable pony. An idea suddenly struck Twilight, and blinking her eyes open, she said, “Oh, I have an idea! I’ll invite her to a nature study and we can do some research on our friends and view different species of plants. I’m sure she’ll be excited.” She yawned a large yawn and lay her head down on her pillow. Before she drifted off to sleep, Twilight continued. “It’s…worth a shot…”
The next morning Pinkie awoke to a bright and sunny day; it was filled with the multitudinal chirps of the birds and noises of the ponies and maybe perhaps the smell of strawberries and ice cream too, but she could only guess.
Jumping straight out of bed, meaning that she just missed hitting the ceiling, Pinkie hopped into the bathroom to clean herself up. Because of her sleeping self’s tossing and turning habits during the night, her awake self had to make sure that her out-in-the-open-talking-to-everypony-in-town self looked alright. This morning was pleasantly different from the others. Pinkie’s mane still had its poof; it was probably helping her out for what she was doing today. How considerate, She thought. She thanked her mane gratefully and proceeded into the shower.
Pinkie’s morning shower sequence was all important to any beginning of the day, maybe even the middle or the after part of it too (if the occasion called for it), and today it was even more all important than usual.
The song was probably one of the procedure’s most crucial bits, because the tune of it carried Pinkie along at just the right pace, so that she spent just enough time in the shower to get clean, but not long enough that her hooves became prunie. It had taken her a bit of time to figure out how long was long enough and not too long to sing the song for, so she wouldn’t have to deal with prunie hooves, but it was altogether worth it.
She stepped out of the shower and dried herself off. ”Yeppers, not prunie.” Pinkie mused, lifting a forehoof to check. And this was perfect; Pinkie was going to hang out with Twilight.
She had planned the whole day out for them last night too, and nothing was going to get in the way of messing it all up, not even prunie hooves.
The pink pony zoomed down the steps and into the kitchen to prepare a quick breakfast. Some oats with fruit would do nicely, Pinkie reasoned and she began to gather what she needed. Blueberries, strawberries, raspberries and peaches were carefully mixed into the oats and shortly after, they were mixed into Pinkie’s digestive system.
“Yummmm,” Pinkie said upon finishing another breakfast time masterpiece (self-proclaimed, of course).
Mr. and Mrs. Cake were making their way down just at that moment and heard the drawn out moan of satisfaction. They knew that sound all too well by now and neither pony could help smile at the pink mare for not swaying from tradition this morning.
“Good morning, Pinkie.” They both sang in unison, both with smiles on their faces and each with a baby Cake in their hoof.
“Good morning Mr. and Mrs. Cake!” Pinkie replied, equally cheerily.
“Guhhh.” Mouthed Pound Cake.
“Mmm-mor…nhh,” Said Pumpkin.
“And good morning to you two too, guys.” Pinkie giggled at the almost tongue twister, jumping over to them after having put her dishes in the sink. “Well, I should be off now. Gotta lot of fun things to do today and I can’t be late for them…even if I’m the only one who knows about those plans, somepony could still miss them without knowing they’ve missed them. Oh, that would be horrible. Then they wouldn’t know that they’d missed out on all the fun I had planned for and would be sad for no reason because they didn’t take part in whatever I had planned for today!” Pinkie gasped. “Oh my, I’ve gotta get over to Twilight’s house before I ruin somepony’s day. Bye Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Pound and Pumpkin!”
Before the two older ponies could respond, she was gone. Mr. Cake turned to his wife and sighed. “The pony is like a wind-up toy, as soon as day breaks she’s off nonstop until night.”
“Yes, but she’s our wind-up toy dear.” Mrs. Cake replied, shuffling into the kitchen with Pound on her shoulder.
*****
Twilight awoke in the morning to a dragon, stubbornly trying to fall back asleep. Apparently he had woken up several hours earlier than he wanted and wasn’t having any luck getting back to his pleasant dream.
Twilight giggled and pulled the covers up so she could get up. “Oh, Spike. I think that means that you’re awake for good, until bedtime again.”
Spike glared at the unicorn. “Well I wouldn’t be having this problem if somepony hadn’t been in the basement making all that racket last night. You woke me up.”
The lavender pony blushed and hung her head. “Oh yeah, sorry about that. I’m just really excited to be spending time with Pinkie and I can get some more research done about her sense at the same time.”
Ignoring the indignant eye roll of the little dragon, Twilight hurried off to the bathroom to have a shower and brush her mane. Her hair, as usual, was quite the mess of bed-head. Twilight sighed while wearing a soft knowing smile and hopped into the shower and began to wash up.
Now Twilight had a precise way of taking a shower. Everything was in order from when she washed her mane and tail to her coat. No wasting time with bathing in the warm waters until after she had finished cleaning herself. Once Twilight was all clean, she took five minutes to take in the heat and pleasant water that streamed against her. Quite a calculated way of doing things and just enough time spent inside that when she hopped back out, Twilight’s hooves wouldn’t be soaked and shriveled.
Taking the towel from its designated spot, just outside the shower, Twilight wrapped it around herself and stepped out of the shower. She turned the shower head off and proceeded to dry off.
“Perfect. Now my day with Pinkie will be terrific.” Twilight mused to herself as she noticed her mane in the mirror. Soaked, and not much better than it was before. She placed the towel on her head and rubbed her head with it until her hair was dry. Then Twilight levitated her brush over to her and brushed it straight. Satisfied with her mane once she finished, the unicorn neatly tucked her brush and towel back into their places and stepped out of the bathroom.
At that very moment there came a knock on the door. A song-like tune that Twilight thought she heard include a tuba and a trumpet. Shrugging it off easily as another one of Pinkie’s many odd talents, Twilight teleported to the door and pulled it open.
“Hiya Twilight. You ready to have some fun today?” Pinkie asked, hopping a few hooves in the air happily. Twilight took this time to see if Pinkie had hidden either a tuba or trumpet (or both) about her, there wasn’t.
“Hi Pinkie and sure, but I was just wondering,” Twilight began, but she hesitated for a minute. Then she continued, “I was wondering if we could do something that I came up with last night.” The smile she wore twinged with nervousness seeing the little pony stop her bouncing; Twilight hoped she would accept, or at least not be angry with her.
Pinkie’s expression softened after a few seconds, and she said, “Oh, sure, that’s fine. I had planned out our day, but we can always do that some other time. Plenty of days to go anyway, and I can’t say what we do all the time.” She resumed her sporadic bouncing. “So what did you have in mind?”
Here goes, Twilight thought. There was no holding back now, not with Pinkie looking at her like that. So Twilight took a deep breath, then let it out. Harder than I thought it would be. Okay. “I thought we’d go and do a little research on our friends in Ponyville…”
Pinkie’s face went blank. “…without them knowing it…”
Pinkie blinked, but she said nothing.
“…Er…”
“So…” Pinkie started suddenly, “you mean…like what you did with me before?”
Twilight looked a little guilty. She felt quite nervous now, like any second, whether she answered or not, Pinkie would start yelling at her. She nodded without a word.
The earth pony was silent again.
The unicorn continued to be silent.
Together, they were twice as silent, but then Pinkie got bored of being silent and suspenseful and said, “Okie dokey lokie!”
Twilight blinked, and blinked again. “What?” She said.
“Okay, it sounds fine with me.” Pinkie repeated with a grin.
“You really don’t mind?”
“Nope. I’ll get to see what you did before. Maybe I can help you with some of it too.”
Twilight gulped, and immediately afterward wished she hadn’t, because she thought that anxious gulp was loud enough for Pinkie to hear it; and if Pinkie heard it then she would suspect something about what she had planned for today, and that wasn’t very good. But given that nothing happened directly after the occurrence to which Twilight was most opposed to allowing Pinkie to hear, she dismissed it as another overreaction on her part.
She’d been having a lot of those lately, Twilight thought and made a mental note to stop or at least, if possible, lower the quantity at which she made those types of reactions.
“Okay, great. Well, I thought we would begin at Sweet Apple Acres with Applejack.” Twilight stated as she stepped back into the treehouse, motioning for Pinkie to follow. “I just need to get my saddlebags and all of the equipment ready.”
“Ooh ooh! I can help. Here let me grab this…this…what is this?” Pinkie held up a rectangular object with little pebbles attached to it by wooden cylinders.
“It’s called an abacus, a tool used for calculations. I used it many times to record how many times a certain type of your Pinkie-sense occured.” And even now I’m going to use it for that purpose. “But this time I’m using it to record curious data in the way that our friends react to certain stimuli.”
“Oooh, I bet you could make a fun game out of this thing.” Pinkie exclaimed, flicking the pebbles from one side to the other.
Twilight rolled her eyes and groaned an almost inaudible groan. To be honest, she didn’t give a right hoof if that groan happened to be audible or not, or if it wasn’t a groan at all, but turned out to be part of a strange alien language. She just needed to hear her inner frustration at the moment and (possibly) for others to experience it as well. She sighed. And this is the pony I have feelings for? It was going to be a long day, she thought.
“Woohoo! Off to have some fun!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around the outside of the treehouse excitedly. The sudden noise caused several ponies to look over at her, as Twilight locked her door. She had her saddlebags full of paper and gear for her studies. The unicorn chuckled nervously at the odd stares she and Pinkie were getting. After a few moments, though, the ponies returned to their business, shrugging the outburst off as whatever it was Pinkie was doing at the time. “Phew,” Said Twilight, hanging her head, “Yes, I’m sure it will be.” I hope. Twilight gritted her teeth nervously. On her fifth lap around the house, Pinkie hopped up in front of Twilight to ask, “Well whatcha waiting for?” She picked up a saddlebag in her mouth and continued, “Come on.” Pausing for a moment to speculate on just what she was waiting for, Twilight began to trot forward. “Right. Let’s get going then.” Without another word, save for Pinkie’s “Hooray!” directly after the unicorn’s reply, the two ponies got going. ***** “Hey, Twilight?” Pinkie said as they walked (or in Pinkie’s case, bounced) along the path to Sweet Apple Acres. Every now and then, she would wave to a passing pony and wish them a good day, but her attention stayed with Twilight it seemed. “What are we going to do once we get to Applejack? Are we going to say “Hello, we’re here to do research on you, so just act like normal and do whatever it is you do. We’ll figure out the rest”? Because I really can’t figure out how this will work.” Twilight giggled at the confusion covering Pinkie’s face. “We have to find a spot where we can see what Applejack is doing, but one that is also hidden from view. And no, we won’t be saying that to her.” Realization seemed to hit Pinkie, as she shifted to a swift trot to keep pace with Twilight. “Ohhhhh! You mean we’ll be like ninjas. Cool! I didn’t know ninjas were part scientist.” “Well, sort of,” Said Twilight, another giggle escaping her lips. “We can’t let our subject know that we are there. We need to view them in nature; in this case, as Applejack works around the farm. If we were to reveal ourselves to her, she wouldn’t be doing what she normally would and our research would be inconclusive.” Pinkie’s head tilted to the side, but she didn’t say anything. “Of course this way of explaining is more for bunnies and other wild animals and not really ponies, but it is more or less true.” The little pony smiled, suddenly. “It’s okay, Twilight. I get it. We have to be secretive and sneaky.” “Yeah, sort of.” Well, I think she understands, The lavender unicorn thought with a smile. Pinkie then turned her head back to watch where she was going (which Twilight thought now was extremely hard not to do, at least for her) and resumed her bouncing. “Oh wow!” Pinkie said, tilting her head over to the right of the path. She jumped up and ran over to the side of the road, with Twilight following out of curiosity. “What is it, Pinkie?” She said, trying to spot what Pinkie was staring at. “Oh,” The mare explained, “it’s this flower. It’s really pretty.” Pinkie stepped to the side to let the unicorn see, and Twilight smiled at the sight. “Oh. A lilium.” “A lily-what?” “A lilium,” Twilight repeated, gesturing to the plant. “It’s the genus and species name for the type of flower this is: A lilium lancifolium, or tiger lily.” “This flower’s a genius?” Pinkie said, pointing a hoof at the polka dotted, and bright red plant. Twilight shook her head, and said, “Genus. It’s part of the classification for species. Each species on this planet has a scientific name, named by the pony that found and studied it. The pony who found this one named it after the color pattern of the flower petals.” “That makes sense. It doesn’t look too much like a tiger though.” Twilight giggled. “No, it doesn’t.” Pinkie scrunched her nose up in thought, and said, “So what about studying flowers? Does that have a funny name?” She actually seems interested in this sort of thing now, Twilight thought. Maybe I’m not giving her enough credit. “Yes, it’s called floriculture. I remembered you like flowers.” “You did?” The pink pony’s eyes lit up when she said that, Twilight couldn’t help but smile at her curiosity. “Yes, you were always sniffing the flowers along the path when I was studying your Pinkie sense; of course I didn’t really think about that until after. I wrote down everything that day.” But…I was only interested in disproving your sense. Twilight hung her head sadly. “What’s the matter, Twilight?” Pinkie asked, placing a forehoof on Twilight’s shoulder. Her eyes were knitted with worry. “N-nothing. Come on, let’s go.” The unicorn stuttered, turning back onto the path. “Okie dokey lokie!” Pinkie shouted, less enthusiastically than usual. Twilight noticed and clenched her teeth, but didn’t turn around to say anything. “So, what’s the study of ponies?” Pinkie asked, trotting up next to the bookworm pony. “Oh, it’s hippology.” Just then a few brightly colored birds fluttered through the trees on the path, back the way they had come. They were whistling a tune, not unlike the ones that Pinkie so often sang when she was off in her own little world. Twilight wondered whether or not she had heard these birds singing before, and made her songs from their calls. “Hippos? We don’t look like hippos.” She giggled, probably because she was thinking of how silly the pony must have been who came up with that name. Twilight really wished Pinkie would stop talking right now. She seemed less cheerful now and it was all her fault. Now she just wanted for the both of them to be spending their days in their normal fashions (well, as normal as Pinkie could get anyway). You know, Thought Twilight suddenly, on second thought it might be easier to understand her if we go by what she does every day. Where she goes and what comes of all her ventures could give me a clearer sense of how her Pinkie sense functions. Twilight nodded to herself and watched in amusement at Pinkie. She was probably thinking of how ponies could be mistaken for hippos; most likely that line of thinking wasn’t making any clear sense. “Pinkie,” The unicorn said. “Hmm?” Said Pinkie, seemingly shaken from whatever it was that she was thinking. “I’ve changed my mind on what we’ll be researching.” Twilight stopped and nodded, having made up her mind at last. Pinkie tilted her head to the side curiously, as she stopped and turned to face the unicorn properly. “Oh? Then what will we be ‘researching’?” “Um…well…I thought, since it’s your first time doing anything scientific, maybe you would like to pick what we look at. Just from what you look at during your day, maybe?” “Oh? Oh. Ohhhhh! Okay, I gotcha. Well, hmm. I already smelled the flowers…what else do I do all day?” Pinkie rubbed her nose in concentration as she thought of her daily activities. “I do like looking at butterflies.” “Perfect. We’ll have to go to a place with tons of flowers. Butterflies drink nectar from the flowers and pollen from them becomes stuck to their legs. When they carry on to the next flower, it is pollinated with the spores of the last plants it visited.” “Ooooh, you’re so smart Twilight. I don’t know how you can remember all that neat information.” Twilight cheeks turned bright red. “Well, I guess I just practice. Research was one of my favourite past times. I had a fascination with flowers when I was younger and I poured over every book I found that related to their life cycle. Did you know that butterflies have five types of color vision? That’s two more than we can even imagine. Just think about what they see when looking at a flower like this.” “Wow! That’s amazing!” Pinkie glanced down at the colorful flower, as if she was trying to imagine what it would look like from a butterfly’s perspective anyway. Of course it was just a guess from Twilight, but it made her giggle softly all the same. Eventually, Pinkie looked back at the unicorn and began to hop backward, keeping her bright, round eyes focussed on Twilight. “Come on, I know a great place full of flowers, it’s right near Sweet Apple Acres actually!” Twilight Sparkle smiled, and followed soon after her pink friend. “Lead the way, Pinkie Pie.”
“Wow! This place is beautiful!” Twilight cried as she stood at the crest of the hill that Pinkie had gone over. On the opposite side was a small patch of trees arranged in a loose ring, with a meadow within the clearing. There were tons of different types of flowers, from roses and lilies to carnations, daisies and chrysanthemums. “When did you find this place, Pinkie?”
“Oh, I’ve known about it for a while,” the pink mare replied, bouncing around the flower field carefully. “Roseluck told me about it and I just had to see it for myself.”
The lavender unicorn made her way down the hill and stopped as she reached the first flower in the clearing. “Are you here very often? Does anypony else know about this place?”
Pinkie stopped her bouncing at the questions and put a hoof to her chin. “Hmmm. Well, Daisy probably does, since her and Roseluck work together at the flower shop and maybe a few others, but I’m not sure.”
“I see,” Twilight replied, resting her hoof under a blue carnation. “I didn’t expect a place like this to be so close to Sweet Apple Acres. It’s really fascinating.”
“Ooh, fascinating? That’s a cool word. The way these trees are arranged is also quite ‘fascinating’, huh Twilight?” She gestured all around her at the ring of trees surrounding the clearing.
“Yes, actually,” the studious pony responded. She stepped toward the trees and quickly formed an idea. Twilight turned back around and lifted a hoof for Pinkie to follow. “And that gives me an idea. Come on, Pinkie Pie. This will the best place to watch and not be seen.”
“Okie dokey lokie! Right behind you!”
*****
“Okay, are you ready, Pinkie?” whispered Twilight from under some foliage amongst the trees. She glanced to her left and saw another bush bouncing slightly.
“Yessir…I mean, ma’am- I mean…ready.” Pinkie giggled from within the bush and the lavender mare couldn’t help but smile at her friend. It’ll be a bit difficult to record her Pinkie senses while under that bush, but…I don’t really mind just spending time with her. I’m sure I’ll get a lot of recordings anyway; her Pinkie senses aren’t that subtle after all. “Ooh ooh. Look, Twilight. Here they come.”
Twilight glanced from the bush to where she saw Pinkie indicating and brought out her quill and parchment. “Yes. Get ready, Pinkie. We’re going to be in for a big day of research.”
As Twilight looked briefly through her binoculars at a few monarch butterflies, she heard a rustling of the bushes beside her. She looked to her left and found that the bush Pinkie was under was closer now. The pink pony’s face pushed through the leaves slightly to smile at her. “Okay, Twilight. I’m ready.”
She seems interested enough in this business, though I didn’t expect this kind of reaction. She’s actually really focused. Once Twilight found that she had been staring, she wrenched her eyes away from Pinkie and returned her attention to the butterflies.
*****
“Wow, Twilight! I never imagined that there could be so many different kinds of butterflies out there. So many bright colours and scientificky names for each of them. I can’t believe how you or anypony else can tell the difference.”
Twilight chuckled as she placed her equipment back in her saddlebags. It had been a long day of note taking, mostly about the different kinds of butterflies in the area; however, she did manage to see quite a few senses from Pinkie that would help in her experiment. I'm also glad Pinkie told me about the swarm of bees coming along ahead of time too, of course I probably would have noticed Pinkie scratching her nose anyway.
“Well, it’s not always easy,” admitted the unicorn. “Some butterflies are mimics, which means that they pretend to be something else; either to scare something off that would normally attack them or to be camouflaged to avoid danger. Painted lady butterflies look a lot like monarch butterflies and monarchs are toxic to whatever eats it. Painted ladies aren’t, but they pretend to be because predators know from experience not to eat something that looks like a monarch butterfly. It’s really quite ingenious.”
“Whoa! I can’t believe how cool butterflies are! I wish I could be all brainy and studyish so that I could learn more about animals too. Then we could really talk about this sort of thing.”
Twilight stuck out her tongue, fumbling with attempting to fit some of her supplies into her bags again. Her eyes scrunched up in concentration, moving her gear this way and that to find a good place. “What do you mean, Pinkie? We’ve been talking about this all day.”
“I know, I know. But you know so much more than me about nature and I feel like I’m kind of slowing you down.” Her voice dipped down only slightly at the end, but Twilight picked up on it. She looked up from her saddlebags and shook her head.
“Of course you’re not, Pinkie Pie. I had a wonderful time here. As long as I have an interested audience, I don’t care how slowly or quickly these trips happen.”
“Really?” Pinkie asked, wide-eyed with wonder.
Swallowing hard at how her pink companion was staring at her now, Twilight turned back to her bags and nodded hurriedly. “Of course. Now, just give me a few more minutes and I will have everything packed up again.” If I’m not careful, I could lose myself in those eyes.
Pinkie was silent for the most part, while Twilight placed her things back into her saddlebags. It worried the astute mare for a few minutes, before she heard paper flipping. “Hey, what’s this, Twilight?”
“Huh?” she asked. Her lavender eyes widened as she glanced up once more and saw her research notes on Pinkie flipped open. Twilight jumped up and stuttered out an unintelligible response. She cleared her throat and tried again, stepping forward slightly. They’re…they’re different types of…of…oh, who am I kidding? I can’t lie to Pinkie; I’m a terrible liar anyway. “P-Pinkie…I can explain.”
“Is…is this stuff…about me?” asked Pinkie, raising the notebook up in her hoof. Twilight could see the hurt look plainly showing on her friend’s face, but she couldn’t figure out what to say. I…what…what could I say to that anyway? It’s written right on there.
“Pinkie I’m sorry,” Twilight blurted out, finding no other words available to her. “I didn’t mean to hurt you I was just-“
“Well you did,” Pinkie interrupted, deflating slightly as she held the book loosely. She allowed it to drop from her hoof as her eyebrows knitted together. The usually bouncy pony lowered her head in defeat. “I thought you didn’t care about that anymore.”
The lavender mare stepped closer, seeing the genuine hurt on her friend’s face turn to frustration and anger. “I didn’t. Not until-“
“Not until what?” shouted Pinkie as she looked back up at the distraught unicorn. The anger was clearly present on her face, but Twilight’s heart raced at the saddened and betrayed look firmly displayed there as well. “Until you couldn’t handle not knowing something again? Why did you do it?”
Twilight flinched when she heard the single sob escape the pink mare’s lips as she said those last words. “B-because I…” She wanted to tell her. Twilight was desperate to get the words out. I’m still not sure. I don’t have enough reason to believe, I…I don’t want to mislead her- or hurt her.
Another voice in her head said, You’re doing a fine job of that already.
Shut up, responded the first voice.
“I…I thought you were over this,” the pink mare whispered as her mane deflated, becoming straight and faded in colour as the realization hit her. “I thought you accepted that my Pinkie sense existed!”
“I did. I still do,” Twilight replied in desperation, trying to convince her friend of what she was doing. “Just let me tell you what this–!”
“I’m just some experiment, aren’t I?” the pink mare interrupted, her cyan eyes seeming to blink back her tears. Twilight could feel her own tears forming in her eyes as she watched Pinkie grow more and more upset. “You don’t have to tell me.”
“What? Pinkie!”
“I’m just another thing for you to understand and solve and…put away in some room! I understand completely. We were never friends, not when you found out about my senses.”
“Pinkie, please, that’s not true!”
Pinkie shook her head, backing away from the lavender unicorn. Tears fell freely from her eyes now, her body was visibly shaking. “Don’t bother. I know what’s going on, and I don’t want to be around you right now!” Pinkie turned and ran back to Ponyville.
Twilight didn’t have the strength to chase after her at that moment. She was too shocked by what she said. She was right, at least about part of it. Twilight didn’t dispute that it existed anymore though; she only wanted to test the probability of the signs, whether or not it had any mathematical principal to it. Now she couldn’t even think to chase after Pinkie and apologize. Instead, she decided to search for Rarity. She needed some relationship advice.
*****
Twilight sauntered down the road; her head hung low in anguish. The light of the sun cast a long, sad shadow behind her as she made her way slowly through the crowds and passersby. Carousel Boutique wasn’t far away, and in no time the depressed unicorn found herself at the front door of the fashionista’s home. Sighing deeply, Twilight raised a hoof and knocked three times.
“Hmm? Hello?” a familiar voice came from around the side of the store. “Somepony at the door?”
“Rarity?” Twilight raised an eyebrow, hearing Rarity’s voice coming from outside of the shop. She trotted to the left side of the building and found the white mare sauntering up to the front.
Rarity’s smile presented itself as their eyes met. “Oh, Twilight it’s you! You look…what’s wrong darling? You seem down on yourself.” She stepped closer, her smile fading slightly as she tilted her head in worry.
Twilight sighed, not even trying to hide the sadness on her face. “I…I need to talk to you, Rarity.”
“Okay, go on.” Rarity walked closer and rested a comforting fore hoof on one of Twilight’s. The lavender unicorn suddenly felt insecure about this whole predicament, thinking that other ponies would hear and judge her for what she had done. I suppose I deserve it…for how I treated Pinkie Pie.
Twilight swallowed and stepped to the side slightly, toward Rarity’s front door. “Could we talk…inside? It’s kind of personal. What are you doing out here anyway?”
Rarity’s eyes lit up and the smile was back. She turned slightly to gesture to what purpose she was out of her house for. “I was planting some flowers around the house to…brighten up some things. You see, the ones I had here before were not faring well, so unfortunately I had to replace them.”
“Hey, Twilight!” an angry voice shouted from behind the two ponies. Did she already tell…? Twilight gulped and turned around to face the cerulean mare. The pegasus landed close to the two and frowned at Twilight.
“Hm?” replied Rarity, taking a few steps forward. “Rainbow Dash, what is it?”
“I have a question for you,” Rainbow Dash said, pointing a hoof at Twilight angrily. She saw Rarity look back at her out of the corner of her eye, but couldn’t bring herself to look away. “What’s up with Pinkie Pie?”
“What do you mean?” Twilight squeaked out, fearing that she already knew the answer to her question.
The cerulean pegasus had lowered her hoof and sat down, seeming to recall her most recent encounter with the party pony. “Well, I bumped into her a few minutes ago and she seemed really upset about something. She kept muttering your name grumpily.”
Twilight’s lavender eyes flashed with worry. She ground her teeth and berated herself for what happened. This is all my fault. I have to fix this. “Oh no, this was a mistake. I can’t believe I let this happen!”
“Let what happen, dear?” inquired Rarity, taking Twilight away from her inner turmoil briefly. Her smile was gone again and she had rested a hoof on the studious pony’s shoulder. “Tell us what’s the matter.”
“I…I can’t…” Twilight shook her head and stepped away from the two mares. “Not right now. I’ll talk to you later about it, but I need to see Pinkie right away. Rainbow Dash, where did she go after speaking to you?”
“She went to Sugarcube Corner,” the rainbow-maned mare replied, seeming to have relaxed from her earlier outburst. “I don’t know though, she seemed super upset. I’ve never seen her like this before; I’m kinda surprised she even talked to me.”
Twilight thanked the two mares and promised them that she would let them know what had happened afterward. She teleported straight to the door of the candy shop and pushed her way in through the door. Mr. and Mrs. Cake were cleaning up the store when Twilight approached the counter.
“Oh, hello Twilight,” greeted Mrs. Cake with a firm smile. “What can we get for you today?”
They don’t know, Twilight thought. She hasn’t told them. She didn’t know whether that was a good thing or a bad thing at this point. It was still pretty bad either way. “I need to speak with Pinkie Pie.”
Mr. Cake looked to his wife and back to the unicorn. “I’m not sure if that is such a good idea at the moment. She just came running in and up the stairs to her room. Try as we might we couldn’t get her out of there and she’s locked the door.”
Mrs. Cake placed a hoof on her cheek in concern, her smile having faded from Twilight’s question. “Oh, I don’t know what’s gotten her so upset. I’ve never seen her like this before.”
I know what’s upset her. Twilight ground her teeth again, and looked into Mr. Cake’s eyes desperately.“I have to try, please. It’s really important.”
Mr. Cake spied her suspiciously, probably guessing that Twilight had something to do with Pinkie’s change of attitude. Twilight couldn’t worry about that right now though. I’ll explain it to them later. I just have to fix this now, before it gets worse. He nodded after considering her for a moment. “Alright then. Be careful.”
The lavender unicorn sighed with relief. She bowed low in gratitude to the Cakes. “Thank you.”
Wasting no further time, Twilight ascended the steps in quick succession, trotting over to the shut and locked door of Pinkie’s room. She knocked on the door softly, hoping that the pony would just walk up and unlock it for her; what she received instead was, “Go away.”
“Pinkie, I’m not leaving.” Twilight’s voice caught in her throat. “I want to apologize and explain some things to you, but I can’t do that with a wall between us…please.”
No sounds replied from inside the room. For a few minutes, the unicorn stood still, wishing that this whole day could be forgotten and that things could just go back to the way they were. Instead, she heard a click from the other side of the door. Enveloping the door handle in her magic, and taking a few steady breaths, Twilight pushed the door open slowly.
Pinkie was seated on her bed, facing away from her. The curtains were open, letting the sun’s rays in to warm the floor and the walls. Twilight felt that Pinkie had the curtains open so the sun could warm her heart back up, but she could tell it wasn’t working.
“Pinkie, please listen to me. I didn’t mean to hurt you.”
Pinkie moved around on the bed, but didn’t turn to look at Twilight. “Oh really? Why do I find that so difficult to believe?”
“Those notes weren’t for disproving your Pinkie sense,” Twilight tried again, trying to explain what it was that she had been doing all day. “I was trying to develop a better understanding of what makes them happen.”
“Is that the reason for the other days too?” she asked, spinning around to face the mare at last. Twilight saw that Pinkie’s eyes had grown puffy and red from all of her crying. Oh Celestia, what have I done? “Was this all just studying to you?”
“No!” Twilight shouted in reply, fighting off her own tears again from seeing the pink pony so upset. “Those days, I always had a great time with you: the circus, running around getting the ingredients for the drink. Those weren’t meant to be studied, only enjoyed.”
“You know that new twitch I had back when we were talking about the different species of butterflies?” She stared down at her hooves at that, making Twilight fear what she was about to say even more. “That one tells me that somepony is keeping secrets from me; secrets that shouldn’t be secrets.”
Does she know that I…? Twilight gasped and back away from the bed. How can she? I don’t even know… “I know that I have been hiding things from you, and that’s why I’m coming to you now to explain.”
“I don’t want an explanation. I just want you to leave me alone.”
“Pinkie, no! Please!” Twilight shut her eyes and jumped at the pink mare, grabbing her as a bright light illuminated the entire room. When the light faded, the two ponies were gone.
*****
“Where…where are we?” Twilight asked. She glanced around and saw that they were no longer in Sugarcube Corner, but outside once more. They were surrounded by trees with orange and red leaves. Beyond that were mountains: tall and proud in the distance, they loomed over everything; though the astute pony knew that no mountains were ever this close to Ponyville before. Everything seemed off in colouration as well, which only led to Twilight worrying about where they had ended up more. What is this place?
“Twilight?! What did you do?!”
Twilight turned from her wondering to stare at a distraught-looking Pinkie Pie. She flinched back and stuttered out a response. “Nothing! I…I just hugged you and…now we’re…here…somewhere.”
Pinkie stared hard at the unicorn, keeping a stern and angry appearance plastered on her face. However, within a few moments, the pony sighed and stood up. “This is Equestria.”
“What!?” screamed Twilight, jumping up in surprise at what the mare was saying. This is crazy. This can’t be Equestria! It’s not autumn. How in the hay did we even get here?
Pinkie narrowed her cerulean eyes at Twilight, breaking her from her thoughts. “It’s true. Well, sorta. It’s a different iteration of our Equestria. It just so happens that, it looks a bit off in colour.”
“You’re kidding.”
She shook her head in reply. “Nope…I have another sense for your calculation. One that’s controllable. So far it is anyway. I can travel to different iterations of our world. I did so just now, but I’ve never had a tag along before. I don’t really want one either right now.”
“Pinkie please! I’m sorry.” At this point, I don’t care where we are. I just need you to forgive me, Pinkie. Twilight stepped closer to the pink mare and stared into her unwavering gaze. “What can I do to make it up to you?”
“You can stop being a meanie mean snoopy scientist,” Pinkie growled immediately, making the unicorn flinch back. She felt as though she had been hit right in her stomach, knocking the wind out of her.
“But…” she breathed out weakly. “But that’s who I am- Wait…snoopy?”
Pinkie huffed and turned her back to the distraught pony. “Well, I guess you can’t make it up to me.”
“Pinkie I…” Her voice trailed off. The memories of the past few days flew past her vision as she stared at the back of the pony that always seemed to have her attention: all of the rides the two of them had went on, the buggies, the funhouse mirrors, even the rollercoaster. How Pinkie had gone through so much for her when she thought she was sick. Twilight closed her eyes to keep the tears from flowing. You would do anything for her, wouldn’t you? After a moment, she took a deep breath. “Okay…I’ll do it.”
“What?” Pinkie asked, glancing back over her shoulder in confusion.
Twilight stared unblinkingly into the mare’s eyes, fully meaning what she would say next. “I’ll do as you ask. I won’t be a scientist anymore. Now please, please talk to me.”
Suddenly, Pinkie’s cerulean eyes flashed with worry. She spun around and trotted up to Twilight with a panicked look on her face. “Wait a minute, Twilight! Why would you do that?”
“I would do anything for you.” The words came so easy to her suddenly. She believed them too. Twilight still didn’t know if it was love, but it was something.
“You…you would?” Pinkie’s eyes began to water, the edges of her eyes welling up with tears.
Twilight nodded her head in assurance, managing a weak smile. “If it means that you’ll forgive me, then yes.”
“I…I…” She shut her eyes and cried out, letting her tears flow freely. Pinkie broke down and hugged the lavender unicorn through sobs and fits. Her tears soaked Twilight’s coat, but she didn’t care. At least she seems to believe me. “Of course…I’ll…forgive you…I…I’m so…sorry Twilight…puh-please don’t stop…being who you- are…I didn’t…mean it.”
Twilight tightened her grip on the pink pony in an attempt to calm her down. “Shh, it’s okay, Pinkie.” They stayed like that for some time, though Pinkie’s tears had dried up after a few minutes, her fits and shudders still progressed. She gasped for air every now and then, unable to keep crying. Please, Pinkie. Stop crying, it’s alright. It’s my fault!
After several minutes, the fits stopped as well and the two ponies just held onto each other. Pinkie’s mane was flat and straight, something the lavender mare never wished to see again after her birthday. Twilight pried herself away from the trembling mare trembling in her arms to smile at her friend. “Pinkie, please stop. I am not blaming you. I don’t want to see you sad.”
“But…you…and I…I didn’t…” Twilight placed a gentle hoof over Pinkie’s mouth. She smiled softly at the pink mare and stroked her mane comfortably; at least Twilight hoped it was comfortable. She leaned in and brought her forehead to rest on Pinkie’s.
“Shh, I don’t blame you, alright?”
Pinkie sniffed, but nodded silently.
Twilight, seeing her face so distressed and her mane so disheveled, threw her arms around Pinkie again in another hug. She returned it and after a few seconds, they broke off again. Pinkie and Twilight sat on their own hooves now, Pinkie wiping away her remaining tears.
“Are you alright, now?” Twilight asked, trying to receive a calm response from the party mare. I don’t know what more I can do if this didn’t calm you down. Just please smile again, Pinkie Pie.
Pinkie nodded, only sniffling occasionally. “Mmhm. Thank you, Twilight. I’m sorry I was so mean to you.”
Twilight shook her head, glad that the pony didn’t seem to hold anything against her now. “I deserved it. I shouldn’t have been spying on you again. I just didn’t know how to go about telling you. I mean, I told you I wouldn’t do this anymore.”
“So you were just seeing if my Pinkie sense had any mathematical properties?”
That caught Twilight off guard. Pinkie had said that she was able to read her mind now. That thought only made her feel uncomfortable again. “Well, yes, actually. I wanted to know if by probability, some signs happen more than others. Whether there was a common flow of how often each one occurs and if they occur in some sort of sequence – alternating or otherwise – or if they are truly random.”
“…You lost me.”
Twilight laughed nervously. “Sorry. What about this? I wanted to see if they had any pattern to say, when your tail twitches to when your ear flops, they would have a sequence. If it happened again in the same order, I could base it off of the first test and know that it is repeatable. Do you understand that?”
Pinkie nodded slowly after a few moments of thinking it over. “I think so. So, if all of my signs are in a pattern, then there might have even more meaning to them then just warning ponies about falling objects?”
“Exactly.”
“Well, what deeper meaning could there be?” asked Pinkie, tilting her head cutely.
Twilight placed a hoof under chin and thought out the pink mare’s question. “Hmm. It might be a message. Each twitch could be a number or a letter and deciphering it would take knowing what initials to use for each sign.”
Pinkie’s eyes looked glossy once Twilight had finished her response. Though the effect only lasted for a few brief seconds, the unicorn had to stifle a laugh at the absurd pony. “Wow. Math is complicated. It sounds super neat though. Do…do you want to keep…trying to figure it out?”
Twilight looked startled by that offer. She shook her head. “Oh no, I couldn’t. Not after what happened.”
“Twilight, it’s alright,” Pinkie smiled lightly, probably trying to ease Twilight’s worries on her continued research. “I understand now. I’d actually like to know too, but I don’t think I’m cut out for math class.”
“I…I don’t want to hurt you again.”
“You won’t. I promise. Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye!”
Twilight watched the procedure behind the pink pony’s promise carefully. She wanted to see if any sign was different, something that might lead her to believe that Pinkie was testing her to still say no to save her friend from further worry. But this is a Pinkie promise, and she wouldn’t change anything about it to try and fool me. “You’re sure?”
“Sure, I’m sure!” Pinkie was bouncing once again, looking like her peppy self. At least the studious mare was glad that that frown and those tears were gone from her face now.
“Well, I guess if you don’t mind; if you really want to figure yourself out with my help.” Pinkie nodded rapidly. “Okay, then. Well, what are we going to do? I don’t even know where we are or how we got here.”
“Oh, right. Sorry, I forgot to really tell you. I actually kinda have a few more senses now. Some of them I have had for a while, but others I just learned recently. Like one of them lets me sense pony’s emotions and thoughts, which kind of goes along with the secrets one.”
At this Twilight froze, eyes wide with shock. Then…has she read my mind and emotions?
“Another one I can teleport to other iterations, whatever they are. Just like I did when you hugged me.” Twilight felt blood rushing to her cheeks as she said that, hoping that Pinkie didn’t suspect any hidden meanings for such a gesture. I didn’t mean anything by it; I just didn’t want her to leave before I explained. “There’s also an instruction manual that comes with these new senses and it’s rather long.”
“Pinkie, I know you’re good, but you can’t seriously tell me you can-”
Before Twilight could even blink, Pinkie disappeared from in front of her accompanied by a poof sound. Teleport at will? Twilight’s mouth fell open at the display and spun in every direction trying to locate the pink mare. Another pop alerted the lavender unicorn to look behind her. Twilight turned around from where the sound came from and saw Pinkie again. She had a tri-quarter hat on.
“This hat’s from the iteration of the Naypoleon era,” Pinkie explained with an easy smile, tipping the hat toward Twilight. “It lies in parallel lines with our iteration. It’s the fastest one to get to other than this one.”
Looking at the hat that had appeared on her head, Twilight really couldn’t deny that what Pinkie Pie said she could do was possible. Her scientific mind still struggled to find any fault in what this pony was saying, but the lavender unicorn quickly pushed those thoughts aside. She smiled. “Okay, I believe you. Now do you think you can teleport us back to our own iteration?”
“Wait, wait, wait!” Pinkie shouted, ceasing her bouncing to hold out her fore hooves to stop Twilight from moving. How does she even do that? Twilight wondered. “We can’t go yet. I still have tons to show you in this iteration.”
“Hold on. You’ve been here before?”
“Of course I have. I’ve had this ability for a few days now. This is my favourite iteration so far, besides our own world. Come on, come on, I have to show you to the ponies here.”
“Ponies here? Well, okay but- Whoa! Pinkie!” Pinkie grabbed Twilight by the hoof and zoomed off in a blur
