Sometimes they speak to me, those thoughts. I know because I can hear them. The voices in my head. But they never tell me just what they mean.
I wish they would speak clearly, those little thoughts. Those betrayers, those worms. They tell me to have hope one moment, and that I am forgotten the next.
Stupid thoughts. I want them out of my head!
But no, I must wait with them. They are my only company in this void of waiting. This vacuum of wanting.
I must wait longer. Wait for someone to open the door and invite me to leave. To leave these thoughts behind.
I look for my name on the list. Oh boy, I’m last. Why would they have to put me last? Oh well, at least I’m not going first. Man do I pity the poor colt who is. Only three before me now. Is anyone else feeling warm? They should open a window. My hooves can’t stop shaking. How am I supposed to play the cello now? My turn. Ok, just focus your breathing and you’ll be fine.
_____
I look across the crowd, all of them have tears in their eyes. Are those because of how awful I sounded? Wait a second, they’re stamping their hooves for me. And there’s a light coming from behind me. My cutie mark! I finally got it! It’s… a treble clef mark? That doesn’t make sense, I play in bass clef. Oh well, MY BUCKING CUTIE MARK!!!
I wake to the sound of a door opening, a lavender pegasus with a wheelchair cutie mark walks through with a cart.
“Good morning, Ms. Pie, how are we doing today?” the mare asks.
Wait, who is Ms. Pie? I wonder. I’m the only one here… could she mean me? Nonsense, my name is... my name is... my name is Pinkamena.
“It’s time for your medicines, Ms. Pie.” She looks at me. No, into me. “You don’t know me, do you?”
I shake my head weakly, somehow unable to speak.
With a look of pain in her eye, she says, “I guess introductions are in order, then. My name is Sunrise, I’m your new nurse. It says on my clipboard it's time for medicines and breakfast, is that correct?”
I can tell she’s feigning ignorance, but I nod anyway.
I would never be caught dead, holding something I have read And if they find I like Daring Do, I shall deny it and simply moo Everypony thinks I’m silly, and for that I fear I am guilty But much like all the rest, I am more than a simple pest There is quite a bit of me to see, like how I know Fluttershy’s a tree And if you but asked of me, I would share with you my tea We would discuss the mysteries of life, which sadly includes all of the strife But if you stay through nightfall, then I shall tell you of it all And when you look me in the eye, you will know I am Pinkie Pie Even though this has been a bore, allow me to say it once more I would never be caught dead, reading books like an egghead
“How does a tea kettle work? I mean, I know the stove heats the water inside, but I don’t know why it whistles when it’s done.”
“Well, Spike, when the water reaches 212 Marenheit, or 100 Cantergrade, the water starts to vaporize, which causes steam. This steam, which is tiny droplets of water that condensed on the air, takes up more space than the liquid water did due to that air. So as more and more water vaporizes, the space inside the kettle gets filled up because it has nowhere but that tiny hole to go. As it builds up, it gains pressure, and when it has enough pressure, it causes vibrations in the metal which creates the whistling. Any questions?”
“Uh, yeah… what?”
“Uuggghh… boiling water creates steam, steam creates pressure, pressure creates vibration, vibration is sound.”
“Alright… thanks. But, Twilight? How is vibration sound?”
"Another day, another royal court, with the same issues, and practically the same ponies. It's all so... boring," I thought to myself. I would have thought more, but I was interrupted...
"Would that be pleasing to you, your highness?" asked a gray pegasus.
"Oh, what was he trying to do?" I put on my thinking smile for him. "Oh, I remember! Plans for a weather factory in Cloudsdale."
"Yes," I said, "that would be pleasing. You may proceed with your plans."
"Oh, thank you, your highness," he said, barely containing his excitement as he left.
I prepared for more boredom.
"Sister?" I heard instead.
"Yes, Luna? Is there something you need?"
"Well, yes. I wanted to make a formal request for this. You see, I want... I want a throne."
"Oh..." I stumbled out. "Sorry, but I suddenly need to use the loo.”
"Ugh, where am I?" asked Rarity, completely unsure of where she was.
"Bet you can't guess," responded a high pitched voice in a vague manner.
"Pinkie Pie?" Rarity questioned, stating the obvious as she saw the pink pony. "W-what are we doing here? Wherever here is."
"Well," Pinkie Pie started, "what's the last thing you remember?"
"Well, I was in the Young Fliers competition in Cloudsdale performing when suddenly I fell. And then I... then..."
"Hit the ground with a splat and died," Pinkie Pie finished for Rarity.
"So I'm... I'm dead then?" Rarity inquired, once again stating the obvious.
"Yup!" Pinkie told her excitedly. "And now you get to live with me for eternity. I must admit, the other members of Tartarus were getting kinda bored, and I've been wondering when you would join us."
"Pinkie, darling, are you dead too?" Rarity wondered aloud.
"Nope! I'm just the devil."
Logan's Run - The Book of Ended Wives (Slice of Life)
"Sweet Celestia, Blueblood's getting another divorce,” said Swan Song.
“I don’t think anything in those blasted magazines is true,” Silver Frames retorted. “After all, isn’t he still married to that tramp fashionista?”
Swan looked aghast. “Well,” she said, “it’s a good thing I do read those magazines, or you might have embarrassed yourself in front of somepony important. That relationship ended as soon as it began.”
“Such a shame, I liked her. But even so, surely the magazines play it up a fair bit.”
“On the contrary, Equestria Daily is the most trustworthy next to the Canterlot Times. They wouldn’t print false facts.”
“Hah!” Silver let out. “Just last week, they had to print an apology article because they got Celestia Air and CelestiAir mixed up!”
“At least they apologized, unlike those wannabe papers.”
“Hmph. I still regret divorcing Blueblood.”
“Me too.”
Through the Ages (Alternate Universe, Dark... I think)
Once more, Spike and Twilight fell on the cutie map.
“Wait, why is is night again?” Spike asked. “Didn’t we already do Nightmare Moon?”
“Yeah, we did. I wonder if this is a different her, or some other threat.”
“Well, I gue-”
“What is it, Spike?”
“Look, the bushes!”
For there, in the bushes, were eyes. Not your standard creepy yellow eyes, mind you, but red ones. Red ones are always much worse.
“H-hello?” Twilight called out.
The eye grew closer. And closer. Before long, there was a… creature… belonging to those eyes.
“S-sunset? Sunset, is that you?”
For Sunset it appeared to be. Then the wings unfurled. They were not, of course, ordinary wings. These were more leathery -looking, and slightly translucent.
“What are you?” Twilight asked, voice wavering.
Still no response. And still not-Sunset grew closer.
"Rainbow Dash! What are you doing?" yelled a very scary-looking Twilight.
Rainbow landed on the balcony where Twilight was yelling. "I'm setting up for the storm tonight, Twilight. Why?"
"Because I was under the impression the weather team scheduled tonight for clear skies. I've been planning to stargaze for weeks!" Twilight did not, unfortunately, get any less scary-looking.
"It's not my fault, some screwhead ground crew in charge of scheduling messed it up by a week. A whole week! Now we have to get some rain on the ground asap, or crops will start dying."
"Didn't this happen last year, too? And the year before that?" Rainbow relaxed slightly when she noticed the change in Twilight's tone.
"Yeah," she said, "we really should just fire that guy. But we can't seem to find anypony to take his job."
Twilight sighed. "And this was gonna be such a lovely night."
"Twilight, what are you doing?" Starlight yelled over the wind, arcane symbols burning like green stars around her.
"I'm sending this Daring Do fanfic into the future," Twilight yelled back. A circle of flame drew itself in the air, lightning discharging from the now-developing hole in the universe.
Starlight shielded herself from the growing light. "Why are you doing this?"
Lightning shot toward the scroll, floating it closer to the newly-opened rip in spacetime. "So it gets published faster! Don't worry, it'll work!"
The room exploded blackness. Not the ordinary black, or even the so-called pitch black. This was the blackness of nothing. The blackness present with the absence of matter. "T-Twilight?" Starlight called in a pitiful voice. To intrude upon this blackness, to force a something into this nothing, was violating the highest of orders.
"It's ok," Twilight replied, "I'm here. Come on, let's go find the door."
