Explaining the unexplainable
There are very few ways of impressing ducks to the point they'd run away from their own pond. And yet, this very afternoon, the ducks from the great pond of Ponyville went to Fluttershy's sanctuary, looking very much concerned.
They weren't panicked, nor afraid, just worried. And the pegasus came to them.
"What's wrong, little ones?"
"Quack quack!"
"Pinkie?" said Fluttershy, slightly surprised.
"Quack!"
"Oh, come one, I'm sure you're exaggerating. Why would Pinkie's presence make you uncomfortable.?"
The concert of "quack quack" only got more protesting. With much recourse to "quack" and "quack".
"Calm down," the pegasus tried to temporize, thinking nonetheless.
The situation was worrying her a bit. They were really upset. The simplest was to go and see by herself.
"And so, what did you see...?"
Twilight had never seen Fluttershy display such an expression. She wasn't afraid, or intimidated, or haughty or whatever Fluttergoth was. No, she just looked completely stupefied and lost. Eyes wide opened, eyebrows frowned, lower lips up in a sign of a total incomprehension, she answered with a tone implying she herself wasn't sure as to how to qualify it:
"Pinkie..."
"Pinkie?" repeated Twilight, arching an eyebrow.
"Pinkie," Fluttershy nodded.
"And what happened? What was she doing?"
Fluttershy searched for a few moments, began to open her mouth, but changed her mind, still searching.
"I..."
She made gestures with her wings towards her own face, lacking words to describe it.
"... the fishes... She..."
"Fine," Twilight cut. "We're going to take a look, alright?"
Fluttershy slowly nodded. Twilight went out of the castle, convinced that her friend was just too easy to impress. Yes, Pinkie was weird. In a way that was hard to explain by science. But it wasn't the first time, they were used to it. This time shouldn't have been much different from the other.
"Twilight, I really don't understand, dear. What's the matter?"
Rarity had just stopped her sewing machine, looking at Twilight with worried eyes behind her glasses. The alicorn was displaying the same staggered face than the pegasus by her sides. She had troubles to explain:
"It's Pinkie... At the pond... She... I don't know."
Rarity guessed that her friend must have done something extravagant once again.
"And you didn't ask her what she was doing or why?"
Twilight and Fluttershy exchanged a look, before answering::
"No, it's not..."
"You would see her, we can't just ask, it's too..."
Rarity rolled her eyes, sighing with dignity.
"Very well, let's see it."
"She's still doin' anything, isn't she?"
"You must see her!" Rarity insisted with a dramatic tone.
Applejack finished hammering into the ground the pole of her new fence, putting her tool aside while looking at the others with a circumspect gaze. Fluttershy was still digesting the things she had witnessed.
"Y'all lucky that I've got some time for a break."
"Hey guys, whatcha doing?"
Rainbow arrived at the vicinity of the pond, seeing four of her friends gathered near a copse, all looking in the same direction. Even Applejack was silenced and shocked by what she was seeing.
Dash followed their gaze, noticing, at the edge of the pond, Pinkie. With a non-negligible particularity: Her mane had taken on disproportionate proportions, the front spreading on the length of three ponies and had more than doubled in thickness. The tip was so far away and so dangling that it was immersed. Pinkie's face was showing an expression of dumb happiness, with eyes even more empty of coherence than usual, completed by an old hat made out of fabric settled on her head.
"Er..." slowly said the blue pegasus, unsure of what she was seeing. "She's fishing?"
"How did her mane get to such a size...?" Rarity muttered, stunned. "It wasn't like that this morning."
"It's Pinkie?" Rainbow suggested as an explanation.
"Shh!" Twilight whispered without even looking at her.
The pink pony's mane suddenly tensed up. But her head didn't move, frozen like a statue. Instead, her hair moved by itself, pulling on the right, on the left, before hooking sharply, getting a hanging fish out of the water.
"How does she control her mane like that?" said Twilight, mystified.
"It's Pinkie," Rainbow repeated, slightly disillusioned.
The lake inhabitant was sent into the air, falling back into the bulk of the mane and disappearing inside. Immediately, Pinkie dipped the tip back into the water, ready to make another victim.
"How is she fishing without bait?" Applejack frightened.
"It's Pinkie!" said the pegasus, losing her calm.
"What is she doing with these poor fishes...?" Fluttershy lamented.
"Just go ask her!" Rainbow outraged. "Ugh! I'll do it, since no one's moving!"
She set off to see their friend.
"Pinkie!"
The mare in question turned her head towards Rainbow, without her mane following the gesture, not moving an inch. Dash stopped when she saw Pinkie's bulging eyes staring at her with a complete absence of consciousness behind them. Just two black and white marbles.
"... You ate some kind of mushroom you shouldn't have?"
"I didn't, why?"
"Your eyes are weird."
"Ah, I lent the blue to Gummy for the day. He wanted to try."
Rainbow was a bit thrown off, answering slowly:
"... Right... Hum, why are you fishing?"
"I like fish!" she replied with a big dumb smile.
"... You realize they are better in the water, right?"
"I know, I know, but that's the point actually, the poor things never get to see the outside world. Always in their pond."
"I think if you'd ask Fluttershy, she'd say they're not complaining," the rainbow pegasus pointed out.
Pinkie's eyes went back on the water, as she answered with great compassion:
"Yeah, but they can't know what they are missing, since they never saw it. I asked Gummy and he said he was happy to be on land. Maybe I'll visit him with them, actually."
"Are you sure they can breathe at least?"
"Of course, wanna see them?"
"I wouldn't be against it, the others are a bit worried if I'm honest."
"The others?"
Pinkie turned head again towards Rainbow, while her mane had just hooked another fish. The pegasus looked at the bush, signaling to the others to come. Despite being acquainted with Pinkie's weirdness, she was feeling too uneasy, so close and alone.
The four other mares got out of their hiding spot, approaching.
"Hey, hi girls!" said Pinkie happily.
"Pinkie, is everything alright?" Twilight worried.
"You seem more... off-the-wall than usual," said Rarity, trying not to be hurtful.
"Huh, why? I'm just fishing."
As she ended her sentence, another fish disappeared in the pink mass she called a mane.
"Are they alright...?" asked Fluttershy anxiously.
"Oh yes, of course! One sec, I'll show you."
Quite unexpectedly, Pinkie took a sidestep. But her mane didn't follow her, sitting in the air, like a levitating wig. The pink and bald mare went by her hair's side, getting on her hind legs and plunging her front hooves into the cotton-candy smelling growth. She suddenly opened it, revealing a full shoal of fish swimming in the air, looking not in the least concerned by the situation.
Pinkie showed a bright smile, looking at her friends.
"See, they're doing fine."
Even Rainbow had abandoned all her rationality. She was putting on a face dismayed with terror, and the others weren't fairing better. Rarity almost fainted. Something, in the act of literally detaching herself from her mane, had crossed a line.
"I, er... That's great, Pinkie," said Twilight, truly fearing for her own sanity. "Don't forget to put them back in the pond when you're done."
"No problem!" Pinkie answered, leaning against her mane.
The five friends slowly moved back, as Twilight threw:
"A-Also, try not to bring them to Ponyville, right? I don't think that's what's going to interest them the most."
"As if. I'm sure they're curious about where we live."
"Very well, we're going to go then," Twilight stuttered, before turning around without waiting for an answer.
"See ya!" Pinkie joyfully said, waving a hoof.
Applejack glanced at Twilight as all five of them were leaving.
"Shall we evacuate Ponyville?" asked the farmer for confirmation.
"We shall evacuate Ponyville," Twilight nodded, still shocked but determined.
"We must preserve the inhabitant's eyes..." Rarity muttered, horrified.
"And their sanity," Fluttershy added with a shaky voice.
"We don't have much time," followed Twilight, trying to get back some composure.
"... We agree to never talk about that again when all of this is over, right?" Rainbow asked.
"I have no idea what you're talking about," the four others answered.