Perspectives

"How do you know me?" Heartbreak asks, I feel my mouth go dry as my brain panics. I can feel myself having a meltdown... *click*

"Oh, I met this charming travelling hat salesman a while back. He told me all about you," I tell her, lying smoothly.

"Oh, him." Heartbreak nods in understanding. "He gave me this hat," Heartbreak tilts her head so I can see her green hat.

"You don't say?" I feign interest in the hat for a moment, still worried on the inside.

"So you're the new pony? And that griffons your friend?" I nod, Heartbreak nods to herself. "I've never known a griffon before," Heartbreak says thoughtfully. Neither have I. I smirk at the thought, but then I notice Heartbreak looking at my bare flank. I cover it with my tail, but Heartbreak has a thoughtful look.

"You don't have a cutie mark," Heartbreak points out.*click*

"Neither do you," I shoot back, I immediately regret it.

"What are you tal-" Heartbreak stops and looks at me wide eyed.*click*

"What I meant was... yeah, sorry, bad comeback." I try, Heartbreak is looking at me judgingly. Pinkie Pie is also staring into me. I wilt under their watchful gaze and sigh at my slip up... *click* "I'm parched, do you want anything?" I ask Heartbreak. She shakes her head and I try to walk past her, but somepony runs into me. I fall on top of Heartbreak, knocking her over. I feel a burning in my side that subsides into sadness. My eyes tear up as the utter sadness is overwhelming. I feel it override my senses and I almost cry, until... I feel nothing. Suddenly, an overwhelming desire overpowers me. Heartbreak pushes me off and looks at me in concern. The pony who ran into me is looking at me helplessly, probably attempting to apologize.

I get up and wipe the tears out of my eyes, then everything starts to focus. I look at the pony and all I feel is an overwhelming desire that I recognize, but it was never this strong. My foreleg twitches, reaching for something. I feel my magic grab at the knife in the cake, I feel a twisted joy as I look at my reflection in it. Death, torture, pain. All these thoughts bring pleasure, and I can feel the urge. I can put a name to it now, it's an urge to kill. I look into the knife with dark glee, then I notice something, someone is saying my name. I snap out of my trance and the knife clatters to the ground, it had been shaking in my weak magical grip. I look up to find Mike saying my name.

"Starlet!" he says once more.

"What?" I ask blankly, trying to take into account what just happened. I look down at the knife and jump away from it, panic striking me. What was I just thinking? How could I! I'm not a murderer, I hope. That feeling, it felt great. I can feel it tugging at the back of my mind, I shake it away.

"Are you okay?" Mike asks, walking up to me.

"Of course, why wouldn't I be?" I ask nonchalantly.

"Because you touched my-" Heartbreak cuts herself off and I look over to find tears streaking her face too. I walk over to the snack table and grab a napkin, I bring it over and wipe Heartbreaks face clean. She doesn't relent, but she looks at me oddly. Eventually she takes the napkin and wipes her own face, the entire party is still looking at us.

"We're fine everypony, just took a little fall and some dust aggravated our eyes. Go back to partying," I call out everypony seems content with this.

"Yeah, dust..." Heartbreak mutters, walking away. Clearly lost in thought, I look after her sadly. Knowing full well that our stay here just got that much harder.

"Dust? I didn't see any dust," Mike says. *click*

"Shut it." I tell him, looking around quickly. Pinkie's stare is still on me, but it's too late to care.

"What? But I-" he starts.

"No, shut it. No one must ever know what we are. No one ever. I cannot stress this enough now. Deny, deny, deny. Only one exception, Princess Celestia. Colloquially known as the sun goddess. But I plan on talking to her soon, you" I point a hoof at him. "Will stay here." I say with finality.

"When are you going?" He asks.

"I don't know. But if I don't come back from my meeting with the 'benevolent' leader, don't come looking for me," I tell him.

"Why would you go missing?" He asks.

"No reason," I tell him. I don't need him any more scared about this than he is now.

"What's with the accent?" He asks.

"What?" I ask in confusion, completely taken off guard by his question.

"You're speaking in a thick accent," he says.

"I don't have an accent!" I say, a little loudly. Which earns me a couple glances. *click* "C'mon, let's go enjoy the party!" I say excitedly, I was having a great time up until I realized heartbreak was here. Jeez, that's actually pretty sad. Even if I know what to expect, she still brings the mood down.

~~~~~~~

Most of the party is over and almost everypony is gone, I'm starting to feel the fatigue of partying for so long get to me.

"Hey, Star. I'm gonna head out now, I think I know the way back." Mike says.

"Okay, I'll be leaving too before too long." I tell him, I look across the room and I find a couple ponies I know. Lyra is just about to leave with Bonbon, and Vinyl's packing up. Pinkie Pie is... oh crap, she's walking towards me. I can see her cold stare and it gives me chills. I look over and find the room mostly empty now, aside from some ponies helping to clean up. I turn and find myself nose to nose with Pinkie, I back up a little.

"You, you've got a secret. And I know it." *click*

"I haven't the faintest what you're talking about," I tell her, standing up taller. Pinkie looks at me in shock.

"Did she just...? She did." Pinkie looks at me in shock, then she looks down at the floor and starts making a bunch of faces. She glances up at me a couple times, it's almost like she's trying to decide something. "Hmm, but that wouldn't explain... oh, right." Pinkie Pie mumbles. I can only wonder what she's thinking about.

~~~~~~~

"Did she just...?" Pinkie asks the other two with her.

"Switch personalities?" Pinkamena asks idly.

"She did." Pinkie says, looking over to Surprise bouncing around excitedly.

"Quit talking out loud," Pinkamena says annoyedly. "I've told you, Twilight's already getting too suspicious recently thanks to us not being careful enough. We've managed to keep it a secret this long, I won't let it fall apart thanks to momentary stupidity. Even Surprise is careful, surprisingly." Pinkamena says.

"Right, well... what do we do?" Pinkie asks, taking care not to speak the words.

"We did say she had a secret!" Surprise adds.

"Hmm, but that wouldn't explain..." Pinkamena glares at her mentally and Pinkie realizes her fault. "Oh, right. But, that wouldn't explain how she knows so much about all sorts of things. She seems to know a lot about the townsponies," Pinkie points out.

"Like heartbreak!" Surprise puts in.

"Exactly, she knew Heartbreak!" Pinkie exclaims.

"No, like how Heartbreak knows a bunch about the townsponies." Surprise clarifies, Pinkie and Pinkamena stop at this.

"She has a point, it does seem similar. Though, she tends to be more fluid at lying calmly," Pinkamena deduces.

"Which one? One of them seems like a good liar, but the others don't seem as smooth." Pinkie says, they all think.

"I don't think she knows about the other personalities," Pinkamena finally states.

"Huh? Is that even possible? What makes you think that?" Pinkie asks.

"Yes, it's possible. Don't you remember before you realized me and Surprise were here, we just tended to switch without seeming separate." Pinkamena points out.

"Surprise and I!" Surprise corrects.

"Whatever, anyways, she doesn't seem to realize she has it" Pinkamena continues.

"Oh, should we tell her?" Pinkie asks worriedly.

"I'm not sure if it could be detrimental," Pinkamena says thoughtfully.

"So, no, just to be safe?" Pinkie asks.

"For now," Pinkamena says.

"What about her knowing all those things?" Surprise asks, both other personalities look at her. Then they look at eachother, Pinkie just shrugs. Pinkamena sighs and drags a hoof down her face aggravatedly.

"Nothing, Twilight told us not to dig. We should try to ignore it as best we can, maybe we can bring it up later or something." Pinkamena shrugs and the three look at each other, blankly.

"She already left," Pinkie points out.

"Thank you Captain Obvious," Pinkamena says sarcastically.

"Should we go after her?" Pinkie asks.

"Why? We already decided we weren't gonna do anything." Pinkamena says halfheartedly.

"Oh yeah," Pinkie says, Pinkamena snorts and turns away. Pinkie snaps back to reality and looks around at the clean shop before hopping upstairs to get ready for bed.

~~~~~~~

I look around me, how did I get this lost? If I had to guess, I'd say i'm somewhere in whitetail woods, but near the edge. It's really scarce of trees, and it looks like there's a clearing up ahead. I don't even remember how I got here, but I know I'm not scared about being lost. Sure, I'm in the woods at night, but it's not like it's the Everfree. In fact, I love the night. It makes everything a different kind of beautiful, which is nice. I'm not in any rush to get anywhere, and I'm not really tired. So, I just continue walking in these woods. But, as I said, the trees were thinning and the path I was on led me to a clearing.

I was surprised to find a pony in the clearing, sitting at the edge of a pond. I walk up to the pony, it's an earth pony mare. She has a wavy pink mane with a red streak in it and a grey coat much like mine, she also doesn't have a cutie mark. Which is odd, but kinda comforting. I walk up to her and she glances up to see me, she snorts derisively before turning away. Her eye's are pink.

"Hello, nice evening, isn't it?" I say, the pony turns back to me and huffs.

"It's alright I guess," she has a slight accent in her voice, a southern accent. Not quite as strong as Applejacks, but similar.

"So, what brings you out here?" I ask, trying to further the conversation.

"Same thing as you," she says aggravatedly.

"Oh, just wandering then?" I ask, slightly puzzling over her statement. How could she know why I was out here?

"No, you stickhead!" I flinch back violently at the name. From what I know, which may not even be correct, it's a horrendous racial slur. Even if I'm not entirely sure it's that bad, I know it was meant to be offensive.

"Honestly, must you stoop to such levels? Isn't it obvious the poor dear doesn't have the faintest clue as to what's going on?" A posh voice says. I look to the side and find another pony trotting up. It's another unicorn, this one a blank flank as well. She has a light lavender mane and tail, the mane has a headband in it and both mane and tail are obviously meticulously fixed into their beautiful wavy form. Her eyes are a light blue, the color of the sky. Her coat is the same gray as mine and the pony sitting by the lake. There is something certainly worth noting here, I just can't think of what it is.

"Not my fault she's an idiot," the one by the lake grumbles.

"Oh hush, she's not an idiot." The new pony looks me over and smiles, "just a little derpy," I smile back weakly. I'm still trying to wrap my head around what's so weird about this.

"Oh, gag me. That's just another way of saying she's mentally challenged." The pony by the lake makes a circular motion in the air by her head with a hoof.

"It's not the same and you know it!" The new pony scolds, before turning back to me. "Ignore her, she's always a tad grumpy." The pony apologizes. I wasn't too fond of the other pony, but this new pony seems so nice.

"Whatever, you and your frickin' technicalities. They're all just stupid." The pink haired pony grumbles.

"They're not stupid, they're correct." I look over to see another gray pony, this one with a dark blue mane and tail. Her eyes are a striking emerald, and I notice that she's also a unicorn without a cutie mark. "Though, I suppose there's no changing your mind." The new pony relents and trots up to me, sizing me up. Eventually she just turns to the nice pony, not even bothering to talk to me. "She's the base," the pony says, base what?

"How can you be sure?" The nice pony asks, the new pony just gives her a look that just seems to ask if she even had to ask.

"She's the only one with the complete original coat," the new pony deadpans.

"That may be, but it doesn't necessarily mean she's the base." the nice pony interjects.

"It's the one she defaults to, for as long as we can remember." The new pony shoots back.

"Not entirely true, what about the other one? She's a pretty big in influence, and one of the oldest distinguishable," the nice pony counters.

"But she's in control even less, and the coat doesn't match." What could they be talking about?

"Okay, so if she is the base, why isn't she a he?" The nice one asks, I pause at this. How could anypony know that I was a guy before, technically speaking. The new pony just gives the nice pony a look and turns back to me.

"You know why," eventually the new pony addresses me. "You have no idea who I am, do you?" She asks, I just shake my head dumbly. "Do you know any of them?" The new pony asks, I look at the other two. I don't know why, it's not like looking at them suddenly made me know them. At seeing my expression the new pony groans in defeat and leaves, "I'll be back, I need to grab the other three." She sighs and exits the clearing. We wait silently and eventually the other pony comes back. Dragging one mare, a pegasus, with long hair along the ground. The mare has a slightly darker and more blue coat than I do, but her mane is a light aqua color. The same color as her eyes and tail.

An energetic pegasus pony is hopping along beside them, she has a dark green mane and tail with a bright blue streak in both. Her coat is a lighter color than mine, but still grey. Her eye's are the same bright blue as her mane. There's also a stallion trudging along beside them, with a darker coat that isn't tinged blue. His mane is slate grey along with his tail, but they both have a black streak in them. Even his eyes are grey, and they're very distant.

"Okay, Starlet. I'm sure you're wondering who we are. Well, we don't quite have names, proper names, yet. Well, most of us, Sable being the exception. We do have common attributes you refer to us by. I'm thought," my brain stops to try and process this. I stare at the hoof Thought is holding out for me as I piece together everything, all of their actions. It all makes sense now. I shake the hoof idly as I think this over.

"Actually, I have a name I would like," the posh voice speaks up. "I'm creativity, but you can call me Scarlet." She says, also holding her hoof up for me to shake. I make sure to remember that as I shake her hoof.

"H-Hi. I'm Sable," the pony with the bluish grey coat speaks up, her voice shaking as she keeps a reasonable distance from everypony.

"Hello," I say in an attempt to help her calm down, she just averts her eyes and shuffles her hooves nervously. No doubt wanting to get out of here and away from everypony.

"Ooh, ooh! Me next!" The cheerful girl bounces over and shakes my hoof vigorously, "I'm joy! But you can call me Joyous! Joy for short!" I just nod and I can see the grumpy pony from earlier facehoof. The energetic mare puts my hoof down and hops back to where she was standing, so I turn to the pony that just facehoofed.

"Yeah, whatever. Just call me Styre." I consider the name and find it oddly fitting for her personality. I turn to the last pony and he ignores me completely.

"Umm..." I reach a hoof out to get his attention as I think of he best way to talk to him. He snaps his gaze at me.

"What?" He asks, his voice is cold and demanding. My mouth goes dry and he snorts derisively before turning away. "Dissimulo," he says.

"What?" I ask, I immediately regret it.

"My name. Call me Diz." I just nod and he walks away. I turn back to thought who has a thoughtful look on her face.

"Huh, latin... well, then my name is Sententia. Call me Stia for short." The pony formerly known as thought says, I nod and try to digest all this information. Eventually I gather enough of my wits to ask a question.

"So, uh... why are you all here?" I ask.

"Wish I knew. I'm just as surprised as you are to be honest. I just figured out what was happening a little sooner. Kinda hard not to figure it out when the only ponies around are blank flanks," Stia says, I feel my cheeks go a little hot at that. Why wasn't that a bigger indicator to me? We all practically look alike too! Except for mane, tail, and eye colors. "I'm trying to figure it all out myself, but this type of thing generally happens when someone faces massive emotional trauma." Stia says.

"Emotional trauma? I haven't suffered any emotional trauma," I tell her calmly, I'm sure of it.

"We just got ripped out of our world and you're trying to tell me you feel nothing? I can't exactly read your mind, but I know that we must be in pretty bad shape if this happened. Despite what we tell ourselves, we might have some serious damage." Stia tries to explain. It makes sense, but I'm not worried. We'll get back, things will work themselves out. It must have happened for some reason, but that can't be it.

"I can try to think of some other reason, but I really think that's it." She pushes.

"I'm fine, we're fine. There's nothing to worry about," I wave away her concerns.

"Yeah Stia! Lighten up! Aren't you even a little bit excited about this?! We're on an entirely different world! I bet there's all sorts of great pony food!" Joy finally stops bouncing around to stare off in an undoubtedly tasty daydream. I ignore the odd interruption and turn back to Stia.

"Yeah, tons of books and new things to learn. Twilight even volunteered to help us learn magic!" I exclaim.

"That may be, but we should be worried about th-" I shush her by putting a hoof in her mouth.

"Stia, calm down. You're overthinking this. We're obviously fine," Stia pushes my hoof away and gives me a stern look.

"Fine, but if things start to look bad. Defer to my judgement," I nod and Stia sighs. She trots off and it leaves just me, Joy, Styre, Scarlet, and Sable in the clearing. I turn to Sable. Now that I have a better idea on who everyone is, I recognize her. She's how I used to be, and kinda still am. Well... I is a really hard term to use now. She's a major part of Skylar, but there's not really a Skylar anymore... there's just us, all a piece of Skylar.

"I-I'm sorry, but I have to go..." Sable excuses herself. I'm tempted to stop her, but I stop myself. I don't want her to be isolated, and confronting her will just drive her away. So I'll let her become sociable on her own.

"Wimp," Styre snorts before turning rigidly to the pond.

"Styre, you've got to be nicer," Scarlet scolds.

"Says who?!" Styre challenges. Scarlet gets ready to respond, but then she just shakes her head and decides not to argue with her.

"Well then, it's only a matter of time before we wake up," Scarlet muses.

"We're asleep?" I realize that I never even thought to question how they were all here. Of course we're asleep. "Wait, so if this is a dream... how can I trust if I actually have dissociative identity disorder like you're saying I do?" Scarlet grins ominously. Scarlet walks over to me.

"Well, that is the question, isn't it?" Scarlet whispers as she passes by. I just watch her walk out of the clearing.

~~~~~~~

I open my eyes groggily, it was just a dream.

"Or was it?" I freeze at the voice, but looking around I find no one.

"Joy? Shut up." I recognize the voices now. The first one was Joy, the second was Styre. I gasp as I realize that it wasn't a dream, I do actually have an identity disorder. I stop to think about this and shrug it off. I'd suspected myself of one before this started, now I actually have one. In all, it's not that bad. Pinkie's already suspicious of me though, and I really don't want to be committed to a psych ward. I'll have to try and keep this a secret as well...

The need for secrecy and amount of craziness seems to increase together.