> The Long Road Home > by yourlocalhetheydisaster > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Turning on the device > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I jumped in excitement at the thought of Equestria's newest invention. It was going to be able to transport ponies to different worlds. Twilight had been working with the princesses for a long time on this device. As you may know, well, duh everpony knows, there is already a device that takes ponies to different worlds, but that only took you to one. This made Twilight curious as to whether there were other worlds. She had begun this project almost as soon as she had came home from the mirror for the second time. She asked the princess's if they could help in her project. The princesses, of course, had decided to help her. They had seemed intrigued from the beginning. So, with the help of all three princess's, after several months of work, finished the project and decided to turn on the device tomorrow. I galloped down the stairs to find Mr. and Mrs. Cake baking cupcakes as fast as they could. I had almost, and let me say almost because I never forget, forgotten about the party I had planned for today. I rolled out my party cannon and set it off sending streamers and confetti flying around the room. I quickly blew up balloons and set one on each of the chairs in the room. I placed the party hats on a table near the front of the room and got out a "Congratulations Princesses!" banner in the middle of the room. I smiled and said in my usual cheery voice, "This is going to be the best 'Congratulations-On-Making-A-Super-Awesome-Totally-Amazing-New-Invention-Party' EVER!" I giggled and walked to the kitchen to help the Cakes make more cupcakes. About fourty minutes later somepony knocked on the door. I sprang up and galloped as fast as I could to the door and opened it. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were standing at the door. "Hey Pinkie!" Rainbow Dash said as I let her in. "Hiya Rainbow!" I said. As soon as I shut the door another pony knocked on the door, causing Fluttershy to jump. I walked to the door and opened it to find Rarity and Apple Jack along with the Cutie Mark Crusaders. They said hello and I welcomed them in. In about ten minutes the entire room was filled with ponies who I had invited, which included each of the princesses. I walked around helping the guests with whatever they needed. I saw three ponies gathered around the punch table watching as everypony was having a good time. I walked over and stood next to them. "What are you guys doing over here? The party's over there you silly fillies!" I said. One of them looked over at me. "We, um. Well, this is the first party we've ever been to, so we don't re-" I cut her off with a gasp. "Miss, uh, what's your name?" I asked. "Uh, I'm Frosting Glimmer, that's Snow Ball, and that's Poppy Seed." She said. "Well, you guys will never know what a real party is like if you just sit on the side-lines while everypony else is having fun now can you?" They shrugged and I pushed them towards the middle of the party. They seemed awkward at first, but then got into the groove of the party, talking and having fun. I smiled as they laughed and talked to others. Princess Celestia and Luna were playing pin the tail on the pony, which in my opinion is the best party game ever, and I watched as Luna accurately pinned the tail on while Celestia pinned in on its snout. I saw them laugh and I laughed to seeing that the tail on its snout almost looked like a mustache. An hour went by and I got up to the microphone. "Attention everypony!" I called. They all turned to me as I began my speech. "I know that the ending of a party is the worst part, but as you know, the party has to end at some point. So, before this party says its good-bye, I would like to give a shout out to the princesses of Equestria! Come on up you guys!" Everypony cheered as the four princesses walked over to the podium. "Let's hear one more 'woo hoo' for them guys!" Everypony cheered and I giggled. "Alrighty! Well, thank-you all for coming and have a great night!" I said as ponies walked out of the doors. I smiled and began picking up all of the mess from the party. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Today was the big day. I pranced down the stairs and quickly opened the door. The invention was in Canterlot, so I had to catch a train. As I walked toward the train station, All Aboard walked towards me. "Ticket, please." he said. I handed it to him and jumped on the train. Rainbow and the others had already boarded the train and had saved me a seat. I sat down and Fluttershy looked at Twilight. "So, you're sure that this is absolutely safe?" She asked in her quiet voice. Twilight sighed. "There is a small chance that somepony might be seperated from the group, but the chance is very slim." She said Fluttershy seemed scared and asked, "How slim is the chance?" Twilight let out a slightly annoyed groan. "I don't know, slim." She said. I needed to fix this unhappiness, so I turned to Fluttershy. "What are you gonna do when we get to the new world?" I asked her. "Oh, I'm going to see all of the new animals that are there." She said in a quiet voice. Rainbow pointed to herself and smiled. "Well, I'm going to see how many records I can beat. Then I'll be the fastest pony there too!" she said arrogantly. Apple Jack rolled her eyes at Rainbow and spoke up herself. "While someponies are making themselves stars, I'm gonna find the nearest apple orchard and ask em' about how they grow their apples." She said. Rainbow glared at Apple Jack and slumped in her seat. Oopsy. Guess I made that one worse. I thought. Rarity cleared her throat and spoke up. "I'm going to see what styles of clothing they have, and give them my own ideas too. Hmm, I wonder what they will wear?" She looked down at the dress she was wearing and tapped her hoof to her chin. "Will they like what I'm wearing? What if they don't?" Her eyes went wide and she gasped. "WHAT IF THEY DON'T LIKE MY FASHION CHOICES?!?" Rarity began to freak out as Rainbow giggled along with Apple Jack. I looked towards Twilight. "What are you going to do Twilight?" "I'm going to learn all that I can about the other world. For instance, what are the people or ponies like there? What do they do for a living? Who is their princess?" Twilight then turned to me. "What are you going to do Pinkie?" she asked. "What I always do!" I said cheerfully, "I'm going to make everypony, or everybody, smile!" We then changed the subject of what everypony thought the other world might look like. We continued this talk until the train stopped in Canterlot. I bounced out as the others calmly walked out of the train. Twilight looked at the clock on the tower and turned to us. "We have another hour until the event." she said. "So what does everypony want to do until then?" she asked us. Rainbow Dash raised her hoof. "I vote that we go to the Wonder Bolts Hall of Fame!" She said. Apple Jack rolled her eyes. "I vote that we go to an apple convention." Apple Jack said. Rainbow glared at her. "How is that any better than my idea?" Rainbow asked. The two growled at each other and I quickly spoke up. "Why don't we go to a nice cafe?" I asked. "After all, a nice cup of coffee is good before traveling. Rainbow and AJ withdrew from each other and resorted to just glaring. "I'm up for a cup of coffee." Fluttershy said. Rainbow sighed and looked away. "Yeah, I guess a cup of coffee would be nice." Apple Jack nodded. Rarity looked down. "I don't know about coffee, but I do know a nice cafe that sells tea." She said. Twilight nodded. "It's settled then. We'll go to a cafe." We all began walking around and finally came to a small cafe. We each bought our drinks and sat at a small table. We drank our drinks and began walking to the town square where a colossal device sat in wait. I walked up to the line and Twilight looked at me funny. "Pinkie, you do know that we get to go first right?" I shook my head and followed them to the front of the line. Celestia was waiting for us at the front. She smiled as she said, "Head on in girls." We walked in along with around fifty other ponies. Inside was a small box-like hole which, I assumed, was the trasporty thingy ma-bob. Twilight jumped in and the rest of us jumped in after her. Actually traveling through the worlds was like walking through a nice spring day. It was fairly warm, while not being so warm it burned. I felt a change in my hooves as my front ones turned into the fleshy things Twilight had told me about. What were the upper ones called again? My brain processed it for a moment before remembering, Oh, yeah! Arms! My tail disappeared and was replaced with a skirt as my hind legs changed into human legs with blue and yellow socks along with pink flats with blue bows on them. My skirt was the color of my coat with my cutie mark on the side. The top half of my pony torso was replaced with a t-shirt the same color as my skirt. My snout was shortened to a snub and my pony ears were changed into smaller, weirder ones. As I was admiring my new form, I was suddenly jerked away from the group. I screamed as I began to drift farther from my friends. Twilight reached her hand out to me. "Pinkie! Take my hand!" I reached out but I was jerked away so quickly I couldn't grab it. Soon, a suffocating blackness engulfed me as Twilight and my friends shouted out my name. The blackness entirely engulfed me and I closed my eyes. __________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ When I opened my eyes, I found myself in a white void of nothing-ness. The only things inhabiting this place was a door and an almost featurless being. The only exception to it being featurless, was its mouth which was a large toothy smile. "Well, well, well. I guess I have a new person to torture." It said in a maniacal voice. I shuddered. "Wh-who are you?" I asked, my voice shaky. It laughed. "I'm truth. So, what did you do to come here hm? Human transmutation?" It asked. I had no idea what this 'human transmutation' was. "I was just traveling through worlds, when I was seperated from my friends." It seemed to be confused. "That's impossible. It's never been done before. Many have tried, but none have succeeded." I began to feel alone and hopeless. "I don't even know where I am!" I said. It seemed to be thinking. "How about this, I'll send you to this world to try to find your way back, and give you all of the secrets of alchemy, in exchange for your legs. Deal? If not, I can just keep you in here forever." I thought of having to stay here forever and it made me shiver. "DEAL!" I practically shouted. It smiled and black hands grabbed me and pulled me through the doors. I began to feel like all of the knowledge in the world was being poured into my head. I gritted my teeth as the pain became worse. Soon, I saw a light and was heading straight for it. The pain soon became too much and I blacked out. Unaware of what I had just been thrown into. When I finally came to, I felt cold metal under my body. I looked to my left and there was a blond kid with a braid. He was wearing a red coat with a strange symbol on it. I looked up and saw that I was being carried by a suit of armor. My eyes began to feel droopy and I passed out. > We Have To Find Her! Twilight's perspective > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Pinkie! Take my hand!" I held out my hand towards Pinkie as she drifted from the group. Pinkie tried to grab it, only to be torn away quicker than Rainbow Dash doing a Sonic Rainboom. I stared as Pinkie was taken into a black abyss of nothingness. I tried to attempt walking backwards to get her, but the portal seemed to be wanting to take us somewhere else. I struggled as a bright light sucked us into the new world. I fell unconscious as the light surrounded me. ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ "Hiya Twilight!" Pinkie was putting the final touches on the new cupcakes she had made for me. I smiled at the cupcakes and she beamed with pride. "I tried a new way of putting the icing on. I call it the branded-Pinkie-swirly-twirly-icing-frosting-topper!" I bit into it and smiled. "Wow Pinkie! This is one of the best cupcakes I've ever eaten! What recipie did y-" "I'm glad you liked it Twilight, because this is the last cupcake I've made that you will ever taste." I looked at Pinkie. She looked like a ghost, her body almost transparent. She frowned at me. "W-why?" "Because you made a mistake in your calculations while making it. Think of it, the 'slim' chance. It's your fault for not fixing it! IT'S YOUR FAULT!" Her mouth opened in a scream of agony, and I closed my eyes to block the image. _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ I had awakened in a cold sweat. I sat up looking around at all of the ponies who had began to wake up, or already had. Rainbow Dash had quickly ran to me. "Twilight! We have to find Pinkie!" I groaned. "Don't you think I was already planning on it!" She looked away. I stood up. "We'll find her as soon as we find our way out of-" "Hello and, again, welcome to the Aperture Science computer-aided enrichment center. We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one." I gulped as she noticed that they were all currently standing in a small room. Rainbow looked around trying to find the voice that had said those words. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath. I began thrusting my hand into anything that we could have possibly come out of. Rainbow looked at me weird. "Uh, Twilight what are you doing?" I stumbled as my hand went straight through a wall. I smiled and Rainbow dropped her mouth. "How in Equestria did you do that?" "It's our way back home." I said. I looked at the ponies around me. "Some of us should stay to see what this place has to offer. I would hate to ruin all of your trips because one of my friends went missing. Fluttershy, Rarity, and Applejack," I said turning to them, "can you stay here and watch over everyone to make sure that nothing happens to them okay?" I asked. They nodded as I turned to Rainbow. "Rainbow, I need you to come with me." I said. She looked at me weird again. "Why do you need me?" I sighed as I looked away. "Because... Well you see... I'm afraid to go alone." I said. Rainbow groaned as she walked to the portal and jumped in. I looked to everyone else. "Rainbow and I will be back soon. Enjoy your trip and stay safe." I said. Applejack, Fluttershy, and Rarity hugged me. I pulled away and jumped into the portal. I saw Rainbow up ahead and she glared at me, "I can't believe that I have to come because you are scared of going-" "That's not the real reason that I wanted you to come with me." I said. Rainbow stared at me. I sighed. "The real reason is because if Pinkie is in trouble then I'll need you to help me fight whatever is attacking her." My legs and arms began to turn back into hooves. My transformation had completed just after Rainbow's had. We exited back through the hole and ran out to Celestia. I looked to her. "We have a problem." Celestia looked at me concerned. "What's the matter?" She asked Rainbow spoke up this time. "Pinkie got seperated from the group and we can't find her." Rainbow said. Celestia gasped and turned to the rest of the ponies in line. "Due to unfortunate events, we are going to have to stop the trips." Celestia said. The ponies groaned and walked away. I walked to a monitor. I typed a command and it showed all of the ponies who had gone in after us heading on their way to the new world without anyone being seperated. I sighed. Rainbow watched me as I looked around for a rogue dot. I gasped as no dots were different from where the others had been. Rainbow looked at me worried. "Okay, two questions. One, what are those, and two, what was the gasp for?" I turned to her. "First, everypony has a spot on their hind legs, or just legs in human terms, that can easily be tracked from this computer. When a pony gets seperated, I can use it to find them and get them back. Second," I stopped for a second and took a deep breath, "I can't find Pinkie." I said. Rainbow's eyes widened. "Y-you mean.." "I don't know for sure but.. there is a possibility that the reason I can't find Pinkie is because..." I trailed off, unable to finish the sentence. Rainbow bucked the air, tears rolling down her face. I looked at the ground, trying to find any shred of evidence that Pinkie was alive. Celestia walked towards us and frowned. "I take it that you were unable to find her." She said. Rainbow and I looked away. She frowned and looked towards Mr. and Mrs. Cake. "I'll go tell the-" "No." I said tears running down my face. I sniffed a bit as I looked towards the couple. "It's my fault, so I'll tell them. Why have them hate you, when it was my fault." She nodded and I walked towards the Cakes. They smiled and waved at me. I felt hot tears in my eyes. They trotted towards me, confused looks on their faces. "What's the matter Princess?" Mrs. Cake asked me. Tears began to stream down my face as I took a deep breath. "I- I'm afraid that while we were travleing throught the portal, Pinkie was seperated from the group." Their eyes widened at this. I sniffed as I looked towards the ground. "We can't find her which might mean that... I'm so sorry." Mrs. Cake began to cry as Mr. Cake tried to comfort her. Mr. Cake then looked at me and glared. "You couldn't have tried to save her?" He asked with hatred in his voice. Rainbow practically jumped on him. "It wasn't her fault." Rainbow said angrily. He glared at me harder. "Well then, Ms. Sparkle, what about that slim chance of somepony being seperated, huh? Why couldn't you have fixed it so that there was no chance anypony could have been seperated?" Rainbow glared at him harder. "Twilight didn't think that it was such a risk that somepony would-" "Rainbow, stop." She turned to look at me. I looked her in the eyes. "They're right. It is my fault. I should have fixed it. If it wasn't Pinkie, then it would have been another pony. It could have been a filly. This is my fault Rainbow." She stared, tears in her eyes. She looked at the ground and ran off. I turned and walked away from the Cakes. I walked until I made it to the Everfree forest. It began to rain as I tilted my head to the sky, and screamed. > Uh, isn't the older brother supposed to be taller? (Pinkie's perspective) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I woke up to the sound of a heart monitor beeping, showing that I was still alive. I felt a sharp pain in my back legs as I sat up on the hospital bed. I looked around, trying to remember what I had forgotten. I face-palmed as I remembered, Duh, Pinkie, You're a human now. Looking around the room, you wouldn't know the difference between this hospital room, and Ponyville's. After all, they've got the chairs, the beds, the giant suit of armor and kid sitting next to it... Pinkie stopped and stared at them. Right... there isn't a giant suit of armor and a kid... That and they're new to me soooo I smiled my patented 'Giant-Pinkie-Toothy-Grinny-Smile' "Hi! You're new! My name's Pinkamena Diane Pie! Wait a second, I've never been here before, which means I am new. Oh well! What's your name?" The two stared at me for a second, as if they anticipated me to say more. "Um, I'm Ed and this is my brother Al." He said, pointing to him first, then to the guy in the armor. "Oh, so the guy in the armor is the older brother, and you're the younger?" I asked he glared at me in a way that almost made me want to laugh. "Actually, I'm the older brother. Get it older." I became confused. "But, you're so small." I said. Before I could even blink, the kid was trying to attack me, but was held back by his brother. "WHO YOU CALLING SMALL YOU LITTLE RUNT!" I looked at the kid and laughed my guts out. He glared at me, a fire in his eyes. "I'm taller than you!" I said. He tried to attack me again and I laughed. A girl in a blue uniform (probably some sort of officer) looked at me weird and slowly walked backwards out of the room. "Who was that?" I asked Ed. He looked back at the door. "That's Maria Ross, she's an officer of the military." Ed said without looking me in the eye, pouting. "Hey! Maria lady! Come back, I wanna talk to you!" She slowly walked into the room. "Why are you hanging out in a hospital? Is someone that you care about hurt, sick, or in a coma? Do you need to be cheered up? Ooh! Let me guess, you are here because Ed's a state alchemist, and there's some sort of serial killer that only targets state alchemists on the loose and he needs to be protected and some officer that is higher than you, maybe a major or a colonel, sent you here to protect him because they don't want him getting hurt, or possibly geting killed!" They stared at me. "How did you..." Ed said quietly. "Down to the correct rank." Maria said. "How did you know that?" Al asked. I shrugged. "Just a hunch." They all stared at me. "What? I just get hunches, that's all." "Well," Maria asked, "could you use that weird power, thing, to help us find the serial killer?" "I don't know, I don't even know what a state alchemist is. But, if you give me a picture or discription, I might be able to." "Um, he's got a scar on his face, and he's an Ishvalan." I stared at her confusion being the only expression on my face. Several minutes had passed in utter silence. "What?" I asked. Maria sighed. "Nevermind." "So, what's the colonel, and or, major's names?" I asked. "The colonel's name is Roy Mustang, and the major's is Alex Armstrong." Maria said. I turned my head to the door. "What's wrong?" "Someone's coming." I said. They all turned to the door for a minute. Ed sighed. "I don't think-" "Alright miss, how are you feeling today?" A nurse asked me. I waved at her. "Hiya nurse lady! I'm feeling great!" They stared at me again. I turned to them. "Staring isn't nice." They turned away. "Alright miss. Can you tell me your name?" "Yep! My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie!" The nurse gave me a weird look. "Right... What's your real name?" She asked *Sigh* I guess I'll just use my middle name. "Sorry miss! That's my street name! I'm well known amongst the kids, ya know? My real name's Diane." She smiled. "That's alright! What's your last name?" Quick! Think of something fast! "I'm an orphan. I don't know my last name." The nurse seemed to buy it. "Aw, poor thing." Success! The nurse looked over my chart. "How did you lose your legs Diane?" Of course, my legs. What a joy that would be to tell her the truth. It would be a one way ticket to insane asylum town. "Um, it was a, um, a logging accident. I was out in the woods with one of my, uh, orphanage friends. He was, um, cutting a tree with an axe and... Missed and hit my legs." "Must of been a pretty sharp axe." The nurse said, hinting some disbelief in her voice. "We sharpened it the whole day." I said. "I guess that would make it pretty sharp..." She said. "I'll be back in about thirty minutes to check up on you again." "Okay! Bye!" I said waving. I sighed as soon as she shut the door. "So," Ed leaned back on a chair, "how did you lose your legs? Really this time." I sighed. "I can never just escape that question, huh?" "Not until you tell us." I sighed."Better get started." After around five minutes, I had finished. The younger brother was staring at the floor while the older stared into space. The Maria lady sat in one of the chairs, her face sad. I clapped my hands together and shook my sadness off. "Alrighty, I answered your question, now answer this. Why do you have fake limbs and your younger brother in a suit of armor? Don't lie, because I will find out if you're lying." Ed sighed turned to me. "When we were just little kids, our father had left the rest of my family and never came back. Our mother then had to raise us by herself." "That's terrible." I replied. "Yeah, one day, while Al and I were out doing some errands, we had found her, lying unconscious on the floor. We got a doctor, and he told us that she was really sick. She died not long after. Falling into a state of depression, we decided to break alchemy's greatest taboo; human transmutation. Al had lost his entire body, and I had lost my leg. I gave up my arm to transmute his soul into that suit of armor. After that, a friend of ours had made this arm and leg to replace my real ones." I stared at them. "I'm sorry." I stared at the blankets on the hospital bed, my vision blurring. Tears were falling down my face. I thought about my parents. My dad and mom, the reason I left, the letters they send. "It's not your fault, if anything it's ours." Al said. Pinkie, get a grip. Push all of that sadness away, like you usually do, and make them happy. "On a happier note," I said, "do either of you have, *ahem* special people?" I asked with a sly smile on my face. "Well.." Al said looking at his brother. "Brother does have a crush on someone." Ed blushed. Maria left the room quickly. "Wha-what are you talking about Al? I don't have a crush on anybody." Ed replied with a shaky voice. "Really? I thought that you had a pretty big crush on Winry." Al said. Ed's face became extremely red. "No, she's just my auto-mail engineer, that's all!" I laughed. He's just like Rainbow Dash when I confronted her about having a crush on Soarin. "Don't worry Ed," I said, "no woman would want a shorty like you!" He started shouting again, and I began to laugh. > There is Dirt EVERYWHERE!! (Rarity's Point of View) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- This place is an absolute mess. It really is. The one singular toilet was stained with other test subjects... Waste, I should say. The tiled floor was stained with dirt, mud, anything that was dirty was on that floor. I gagged in disgust. "Where in Equestria is the janitorial group? They should really clean this place up!" I said. Unlike the room, the bed was neatly made and seemed fairly clean. Though, with all of these ponies, I mean, people in the room, it probably wouldn't stay that way. The voice came back on again saying, "We hope your brief detention in the relaxation vault has been a pleasant one." The voice, presumably female, continued talking; until something appeared. We all stopped and stared at this... thing, that had just appeared. The Voice told us to exit through the thing(now given the name as a portal.) We stepped through, single-file. The Voice was about to say other things, then stopped. "Wait a second, I don't remember there being ten to twenty test subjects inside the enrichment center. Where did you come from?" I flipped my hair to give it a better fluff, then cleared my throat. "I am, Rarity, and we came from a different, what did Twilight call it? World, no, universe still not right... Oh! Now I remember, dimension. The dimension that we came from is called Equestria, you must have heard of it." The Voice didn't come back on for a while, and we were getting anxious. It seemed like it had been forever when the Voice finally spoke again. "I have searched every database around the world, there is a place in South Africa named Equestria, is that where you live?" Apple Jack face-hoofed, while Fluttershy stared at a camera that was on the wall. "Well, no. Equestria is its own country. Maybe you should check your, um, database was it? Yes, check that again, becau-" "I have already check my database again. There is no other place in the world other than Equestria in Africa." I huffed. "Are you sure that your mental stability is intact? We cannot properly test until your mental stability is in check." "I am positive that my mental stability is intact. Perhaps your database is broken, hm?" I was starting to get frustrated. How could this thing, whatever it is, not know where Equestria is? It's a computer, all computers know everything. The Voice returned. "I have run a test to see if my data-base is broken, which it is not. Your mental stability is fine... which is different. We will now begin testing no matter where you are from. Please pla-" "What in tarnation do you mean by, testin'?" Apple Jack asked. I turned to the camera, also wanting answers. The Voice came on again, sounding slightly irritated. "Please place the cube on the button." Apple Jack mumbled some profain words and glared at the floor. I gave a slight hmph and tried to pick up the cube. I began sweating and stopped. "Ew! Sweat! I'm sweating! If this sweat gets in contact with this dirt then I will be covered in dirt!" I shouted. I looked around for anypony who could possibly pick up this cube. I looked at Apple Jack and smiled. "Apple Jack, would you be a dear and place the box onto the button?" I asked. Apple Jack sighed and started to mumble under her breath. She picked up the cube and placed it on the button. She mumbled and gave me a nasty look as she walked by me. The voice returned again. "Here at Aperture Laboratories, failure is not an option. Please, if you find yourself stuck in anyone of the tests, try until you get it right. As Thomas H. Palmer once said, 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try, try again." "Yeah Rarity," Apple Jack said, "try again." She glared at me then back at the box. I began to get annoyed and walked to the door. I stopped as I looked at a blue, shimmery thing that almost looked like film. "That is an imancipation grid, it will incinerate any unauthorized testing equipment. Thank you." We walked into an elevator, and passed the next test. Upon entering the next chamber, the voice told us to grab the item in the middle of the room. Apple Jack and Raindrop jumped through the portal and grabbed the gun. "You have now obtained the hand-held portal device. Unfortunately, since I expected only one tester, this is the only portal device I have placed inside of the test chamber. Thank you for your co-operation." Apple Jack shot a portal through the glass where we were standing, and let us run out of there. Dear sweet Celestia, everything in this room is repulsive. Even the device thing that Apple Jack is holding is covered in dirt. "Apple Jack, dear, please when you finish with that... thing, could you wash your hands?" I asked Apple Jack turned her head and rolled her eyes. "Rarity, clean hooves-" "Hands," I corrected her. "Ugh, washing mah hands are not mah biggest concern," she said, annoyed at my correction. I gave a huff and continued to walk towards the elevator. Fluttershy had caught up with Apple Jack and I, hiding her face with her mane. "Um, girls, maybe we should stop fighting. After all, we're supposed to help these ponies have a good time in this universe. So, let's um, not fight." Apple Jack and I gave a glare at each other, then looked away. Apple Jack, if we weren't here to help all of these ponies, I would...would... give you the biggest make-over of your life. Dress and all. I huffed again and walked with the group, my nose in the air. "Please refrain from fighting. With all of you here, I have decided to make this a co-operation test. Thank you." I huffed angrily at the voice. "We can fight all we want. You ca-" "Also, stop being so dramatic. It is just dirt. Dirt is a fact of life, live with it." Apple Jack laughed a little at the voices sentence and I glared at her harder. This was going to be a very long testing session. > ...And to Give Them a Piece of My Mind. (Rainbow's Point of View) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I flew away from the angry Cake's, tears flowing from my eyes. I sped up as thoughts circled around in my mind. Pinkie's dead. And if she isn't, then I'll never be able to see her again. What if she was evaporated in the process? I flew even faster, trying to fly away from my own thoughts. "OOF." I felt somepony run into me, and I went unstable for a second, before righting myself. "Hey watch where you're-" I stopped in the middle of my sentence, noticing who had flown into me. "Sorry Derpy. I've just been... Emotional." "Yeah, I get it. Though, why were you flying so fast?" Derpy asked me. I sighed, letting my ears press against my head. "I-I don't know." I replied. My mind then moved back to Twilight and I felt anger course through my body at the Cakes making her feel like it was her fault. This was also apparantly visible to Derpy, because she flew back a litle bit. "Oh! I'm sorry, did I say something. I'm sorr-" "It's not your fault Derpy. You can actually help me. Have you seen the Cakes or Twilight recently?" I asked, hoping she knew where both were. "I don't know where Twilight is, but, I do know where the Cakes are. I saw them walk into Sugarcube Corner. Mrs. Cake seemed pretty sad, while Mr. Cake seemed very angry. Why did you want to know where they were?" Derpy asked. I angrily growled. "I needed to know if Twilight was emotionally okay, and as for the Cakes, I needed to give them a piece of my mind." I said. Derpy nodded, then flew away, looking back at me as she did. I then began to make my way to Sugarcube corner, preparing myself for what I was about to say. As I entered the building, I saw that the front, shop part of it was dark, and so I began to make my way into the back part. They must have heard my hoof-steps, because Mr. Cake shouted from the back. "We're not open." I felt the anger again, and continued walking. "I'm not here for sweets." I called. I then heard somepony walking towards me, so I decided to save the suspense, and let him come to me. He rounded the corner then saw me, anger burning in his eyes. "So you finally came to apologize? I'm going to tell you that-" "I'm not here to apologize either." I growled. He glared at me, grinding his teeth. "Well, then, if you're not here for sweets, or to apologize," He said, pointing his hoof to the door, "Then leave." I stood in the same spot, and glared right back at him. "No, I don't think I will. Do you want to know why?" I asked. He opened his mouth to say something, but I cut him off. "Because I want you to go and apologize to Twilight, now." I said angrily. "Why do I have to apologize to that murderer?" He growled. The word murderer echoed throughout my head, and I saw red, as I lashed my hoof out, feeling it connect with his face. He stumbled back a bit from the impact, and I began to pant like a mad pony. "Don't. You. DARE call Twilight a murderer EVER. AGAIN!" I screamed. I then saw Mrs. Cake come around the corner, and gasped as she saw who was screaming at him. "Ms. Dash! Why are you-" I whipped my head around to her. "STAY OUT OF THIS!" I screamed. I then turned back to Mr. Cake, my anger still burning in my skin. Mr. Cake then angrily turned towards me. "Don't yell at my wife like that! Say you're sorry, now!" He shouted at me. I then turned around to face him, taking a step towards him. "What? Like how you did to Twilight? You expect me to say sorry to Mrs. Cake, when you won't do the same for Twilight? What makes you think that after you made her feel terrible, that I would want to do anything nice for you? Tell me that!" I yelled. He then walked over to me and put his face close to mine. "Because it's the honest truth that Twilight Sparkle is a murderer. So we didn't do anything wrong, now, say you're sorry!" He yelled again. I punched him again, making him fall to the ground. I loomed just barely over him, looking down angrily. "I said to never say that again. Also, I'm not going to do anything. She needs to stay out of it because, unlike you, she did nothing wrong. She mourned for Pinkie, while you became angry, and made Twilight feel like she was the villian. You lashed out." I said. He looked up at me and frowned. "Just like what you're doing right now?" He asked. I froze, so he continued. "In other words, by our actions, we're the same." I then felt plain and simple anger become replaced with a burning rage. I began punching him again and again. Watching as he recoiled with every other punch I threw at him. I was going to punch him again, when Mrs. Cake restrained me. "Please, stop." She said, tears running down her face. I lowered my hoof, and stepped away from him. I walked out of the door, not saying another word. I felt cold wet drops of water on my coat, and looked at the sky. The pegasi were just putting the final touches on the storm they were creating. Fitting for a sad day like this, I thought, though I'm not sure how much Pinkie would like that everypony was crying over her. I began to walk away from Sugarcube corner, my hooves dragging on the ground as I walked. "Come to think of it, Pinkie probably wouldn't have liked that I did that either." I said, feeling two hot tears roll down my cheek. "Funny, usually rain here is pretty cold." I said, feeling more tears fall out of my eyes. I quickly took to the sky, trying to fly away as fast as I could from the brightly colored building. I flew until I had gotten to my cloud house. Running into my room, I began to sob. "P-Pinkie... I-I'm so sorry!" > I Believe in You. (Pinkie's perspective.) > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- When everything finally became calm, I stretched my arms and looked toward Ed. "Well, I know that this is a totally random question, but do you know anywhere that I could get, ya' know, fake limbs. To get back on my own two feet. Well, sorta. I mean, they wouldn't be my feet they would be prosthetic. Or would they, I mea-" "Shut. Up." Ed said, putting his hand over my mouth. I nodded, and he moved his hand. "Now as for replacing your limbs, remember how I said that Winry was my auto-mail engineer?" Ed asked. "Yeah." "Well, auto-mail is a type of prosthetic limb. You could probably get some from her." He said. I smiled really wide and nodded. "Alrighty then, when can I leave here?" I asked. "The nurse said that they would need to watch you for one more day, but after that they said you could leave." Al replied to my question. I nodded. "Alright, let's leave as soon as possible 'kay?" I said. "'Cause I don't really know how long it will take to get to wherever your friend lives. Also, I hate being still for a really long time." I added. I sat up in my bed and looked at a clock, noticing that it was six o'clock in the morning. "Well, I don't know about anyone else, but I'm ready to go!" I said loudly. Al looked towards me in shock. "What are you doing up this early?" Al asked in a whisper. I turned towards him and giggled. "Because I'm ready to go, duh!" I replied. Al nodded and quietly laughed nervously. "Sorry. I'm just used to Brother not getting up until really late in the day." I nodded, remembering that Rainbow hardly ever woke up early. A nurse then came in and turned to me. "Well, you're quite the morning person, aren't you?" She chuckled a bit and I nodded. She then went to a monitor and looked at all of the stats, then went to me. "Do you feel any pain?" She asked. "Nope! I feel great, actually." The nurse nodded, then checked my bed for any blood. When she found none, she checked something off of her little checklist. "Alright Miss Diane," she looked at me and smiled, "you're good to go!" I smiled wide. I then thought of a very important question. "Um... Miss? Hate to be a bother, but, well, how am I going to get out of here if I can't walk?" The nurse turned towards the door. "Give me a second." She said. She walked out of my room, and into the hallway. I began to hum a tune as I waited for her. She soon came back, with a wheel chair and set it next to my bed. "You'll use this." I nodded then smiled again. "Okay! Thanks Nurse Lady!" The nurse smiled again. "You're welcome!" She walked out again, and I turned towards the chair. I stared at it for a bit then turned to Al. "Hey, uh. Can you help me? Please?" I said. Al nodded and walked towards the bed. He picked me up and placed me in the chair. "Thanks!" He nodded and I span the wheels a little bit. "Whoa, this is really rolly." I turned to Al again. "Hey, I'm going to go out and look around while we wait for your brother to awaken. That cool with you?" "Yeah, sure!" Al said. I rolled myself out of the room and then started to roll up the hallway. As I began to reach the end of it, I saw that there was a room that was open just a crack. I stepped inside and found a woman laying in a hospital bed, with tubes and other medical looking things. As I rolled in, she turned her head towards the door. I smiled as she saw me. "Um, hi Miss." I said. She smiled back, which made me feel more confident. "Hello little one." She said. "What brings you here?" I rolled inside the room, and came close to her bed. "Nothing really. I was just exploring, and I saw your door was open. So I thought that you might want a little bit of company." I said She smiled again. "Thank you. I don't really get any visitors any more." She said, in a sad tone. I looked at her confused. "Why don't you get any visitors?" I asked, she sighed and laid back in the bed, getting a little bit more comfortable. "Because, I have lost all contact with anyone I loved or cared about." She said, staring at the ceiling. I tilted my head. "How did you lose contact?" She continued to stare at the ceiling. "It started when I was a teenager," She started, "I was at a party one night and, being the unsocial rabbit I am, sat on the side-lines." "You don't have any fun on the side-lines though." I said. I remembered the two ponies I had helped become more social at the party for the princesses. She smiled "Yeah, wish I had known that then. Anyway, half-way through the party, I had met a guy, and he seemed pretty nice." She said. I nodded, and she continued. "So, we started dating." "That's good." I said. She smiled. "Yeah, it is pretty good." Her smiled then turned to a frown. "Though, after we had been dating for a year, I decided that he should meet my parents. Now, even though this guy was nice, he didn't have much money. I didn't mind, but my parents did not like that. They kept on asking me if I wanted to date a different man. I kept on telling them no." "Good for you. You should be able to choose the man you stay with for the rest of your life." I said. "Maybe sometimes, but this one led me to have my family constantly angry with me. So, one night, I called my boyfriend, and told him to meet me outside. He did, and I snuck out of the house and ran away. I haven't talked to my family since." Tears brimmed in her eyes as she continued. "A couple of years later, I had found out that my boyfriend had cheated on my with another girl." I gasped at this. "What! Why would he do that!" I shouted. She looked out the window. "That's what I asked him. He told me that she was prettier than me, and that she had loads of money. So he left, and I was alone." A single tear had run down her face. "And as for my friends, they think that I'm a lost cause." I gasped again. "Why do they think that?" I asked unhappily. "I have a disease that the doctors say is very deadly. I've been in here for about a year now, so my friends think that I'm going to die, so they left." I felt tears come to my eyes, and she looked at the ceiling. "Right now, I think that maybe it would be better if I die." At this one sentence, something broke inside of me, and I looked down. "Don't say that." I whispered. She looked at me. "What?" She asked. "Don't say that." I repeated. "I know that right now, and in the past, things aren't going well. But listen to me, this hell, is nothing compared to the hell that your friends, and maybe even your family, would go through. And if every part of your mind screams at you that you can't make it through this, scream louder. Scream at it that you can make through this. You can live, and even if you don't, you can at least say that you tried. That you didn't just accept that you were going to die and left it at that. "And even though your friends don't believe in you, I do. You were gifted with life on this planet, and call me a magical earth worm if you think that I will just let you throw it all away." I looked at her with determination in my eyes. She looked at me, and tears streamed down her face. Though this time, I could tell that they were happy tears. "Thank you." She said. "Hey Diane, where are you?" I heard Ed shouting for me in the hallway. "Coming!" I shouted back. "Good-bye Miss..." "Elizabeth. And good-bye to you too Diane." She said. I rolled out into the hallway and Ed looked at me. "Come on, the train is going to leave in an hour, we gotta hurry." Ed urged. I smiled. "Alrighty then, let's go!"