Corrupted Fates

Meanwhile, in another place, another timeline, one where events transpired as they were meant to...

“Dear Princess Celestia, today I learned that...” Twilight's voice trailed off. A vacant look spread across her features for a moment as the unicorn stared out the window of the library, transfixed on nothing in particular.

“...Twilight?” The small dragon asked, looking up from the scroll with obvious concern in his eyes.

“Oh, sorry Spike. I just got distracted by a thought.” As Spike rolled his eyes,Twilight shook her head in hopes of clearing it. She couldn't stop thinking about the strange comet she'd spotted last night; not even her new copy of The Astronomical Astronomer’s Almanac to All Things Astronomy she had consulted had mentioned anything about comets at this time of the year! It was probably nothing important, and certainly nothing to pester the princess with... though she couldn't shake a nagging feeling of unease about the phenomenon. “...today I learned that when a friend is in need, that friend is—”

“TWILIGHT!” The door to the library burst open, sending scattered papers flying about. A panicked orange earth pony wearing her trademark wide-brimmed hat galloped in and looked around frantically.

“...is Twilight.” Spike murmured, writing. “Wait, huh?” Spike squinted at the scroll, as though incredulous that he had actually made such a simple error.

Twilight chuckled at Spike's mistake and started down the stairs. Behind her, Spike rolled up the unfinished letter and set it on Twilight's endtable. As she descended, Twilight could not help but feel concerned. She hadn't seen Applejack this worked up in some time, probably not since... well, ever. “Applejack, what's the matter? It's not like you to be in such a hurry, and certainly not at such a late hour.”

Applejack dashed up the stairs and nudged Twilight along quickly, earning her an annoyed glare from the unicorn that quickly melted into genuine concern as Applejack began to speak. “C'mon! I dunno if it's just too much sugar or what, but somethin' is seriously wrong with Pinkie!”

Twilight's eyes widened as she quickened her pace and left the library, Applejack galloping alongside her, leaving Spike to shrug and see to tidying the library up from Twilight's latest mind-boggling feat of disorganization that Applejack had only amplified. “She's not... talking to inanimate objects again, is she...?” Twilight asked, her voice betraying intense unease.

Applejack shuddered. Rainbow Dash had told them all about that particular incident after the fact, at Twilight's insistence. All her friends had been sure to keep an extra eye on Pinkie Pie after that, just in case. “No, but... she just ain't makin' sense! I'm hopin' you of all ponies could talk to 'er an' help.”

Twilight nodded, biting back her questions for the sake of haste. “So, where is she?”

“I saw 'er around the outskirts of town talkin' nonsense. I ain't even sure if she recognized me, the poor filly.”

Resolute, the two friends soldiered on, eager to help their friend. A few minutes later, near Fluttershy's cottage, the two spotted Pinkie Pie sitting on the grass, staring peacefully at the emerging stars. Twilight gave Applejack an inquisitive look. All the farmpony muttered was, “Just try talkin' to 'er.”

Twilight calmly trotted up to Pinkie. “Hello, Pinkie Pie! It's... a nice night tonight, isn't it?”

Pinkie Pie slowly turned to look at Twilight. “Aeiou.”

Twilight took a step backward in surprise. “W-what?”

Suddenly, Pinkie Pie dropped down from above Twilight so she stood directly beside her. “Aeiou! Aeiou! Aeiou!” Each time she seemed to move to a new location faster than should have been possible, using whatever strange ability the earth pony had. Normally, this wouldn't have bothered Twilight, but something sounded wrong with Pinkie's voice. Pinkie sounded... hollow, somehow, or just very tired to the point of being loopy. ...Well, loopier.

Confused and a little frightened, Twilight spoke, a nervous tremor entering her voice, “J-just slow down a little, Pinkie. What is... uh... an 'ayu'? Is it... some kind of new cake?”

Pinkie Pie put her face very close to Twilight's and stared at her intently with an unusually serious look on her face. Twilight, suddenly very uncomfortable being this close to her friend, blushed and resisted the urge to shy away.

Pinkie broke out into one of her usual broad smiles and exclaimed, “President breasts demanding!” and ran off after leaping in the air a short ways, leaving a confused Twilight in her wake. Applejack put a hoof to her head and muttered, “Oh, horse apples. She's only gettin' worse...”

Fluttershy poked her head out of her cottage shyly. “O-oh. I-is she gone? She was scaring some of the animals, so I stayed inside to calm the poor things down.”

Applejack called out, “It's fine, sugar cube!” In a normal tone, she added, “...Though I would like to know what in the hay was goin' on here. Any ideas, Twilight?”

Twilight put a hoof to her head and thought intently. True, Pinkie was very... random... but this was beyond what anypony had seen from her. “I don't have a clue, Applejack, and besides that, I'm not sure where she went. Maybe we should just let her be and see if things have gotten any better overnight. It's getting dark, so even if we tried to look for her, I doubt we'd make any progress.”

“If you say so, Twi...” Applejack couldn't help but look concerned.

Twilight smiled confidently. “Don't worry, Applejack. It's Pinkie Pie we're talking about. She comes around eventually... just not always in the way we expect. I'm sure this is just another little eccentricity of hers. Let's give her some space and she'll probably be fine.”

Looking relieved, Applejack remarked, “I reckon you're right, Twilight. Well, I've got a long day tomorrow. Night.”

“Good night, Applejack.” The two friends parted, content to let the problem resolve itself.

Later that night, Twilight couldn't stop herself from thinking about Pinkie's strange behavior, making no progress on her sudden comet research. Pinkie Sense she could accept. Pinkie's ability to occasionally be... places... that didn't make any sense she could ignore for the sake of her sanity. Not even magic could explain some of the things she had seen Pinkie do. But this? This seemed like out-and-out madness, and that worried her. She and all her friends had been keeping an eye on Pinkie for more signs of mental instability since the birthday incident, and it appeared she had snapped again. Still, Pinkie wasn't the type to have a problem for more than a day or so. Even during that debacle on her birthday all it took was seeing a cake to bring her back to her old self. Pinkie was fine, or soon would be, at any rate. Best to sleep on it and consider how to help her in the morning, she told herself as she climbed into bed.

The next day, Twilight awoke much earlier than normal and headed straight for Sugar Cube Corner to check on Pinkie. Hopefully she had returned home last night... if not, Twilight had a very busy day ahead of her. With a yawn, Twilight slowly walked out into the early morning's sunlight, relishing the feeling of warmth on her face. “I feel like today is going to be a good day,” she said to herself confidently.

The delicate aroma of dozens of different sweets greeted Twilight's nostrils as she entered. Mmm... I should really stop by here in the morning more often when everything's so fresh. ...But that would mean getting up early...

“Hiya, Twilight! Isssss somepony hungry?” a bubbly voice called out from behind the counter. There stood Pinkie Pie, as cheerful as ever, hoisting a fresh tray of pastries onto the counter.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. “Hi, Pinkie Pie! I'm glad to see you're feeling better.”

In a flash, Pinkie Pie somehow moved from behind the counter to stand by the door and Twilight faster than the unicorn could blink. “Whaddya mean 'better'? It doesn't get much better than this! A beautiful day, sugary sweets at my hooves, aaaaand one of my bestest friends is here! I mean, sure, we could be having a party, that would be more fun, but I think I just had a party last week or was it this week or next week? It was so fun I can't remember!” She bounced a few times in delight. The earth pony's boundless energy made Twilight smile, in spite of the gravity of her mission and Pinkie's usual disconnected trains of thought.

“But, um, Pinkie, what about last night?”

“What about what about last night?” the pink earth pony replied, a more amused look than usual present on her face as she tilted her head to the side slightly.

Utter befuddlement plain on her face, Twilight asked, “You don't remember?” Upon receiving no reply, Twilight added, “...What you were doing near Fluttershy's cottage?”

Pinkie giggled. “Oh, you silly! How could I have been at Fluttershy's when I was at Rarity's last night? Wait, is this... ohmygosh Twilight, are you trying to pull a prank I'm so happy for you! Now, your execution was okay, but it lacked a certain Pinkieness to it, I mean first you have to—” Pinkie was silenced by a swift purple hoof in her mouth. Pinkie gave Twilight an amused, but quizzical, look.

“So, let me get this straight,” Twilight said, her left eye twitching slightly, “you weren't at Fluttershy's last night?”

After Twilight removed her hoof, Pinkie happily replied, “Nope!”

“And you're sure of this?”

“As sure as a party is fun!”

Twilight sighed. “Okay. Well, I should get going. I'll see you later, Pinkie.” She turned to go, hearing Pinkie's usual cheery response of “Okay dokey lokey!” following her out of the shop.

Clearly, I'll have to get Rarity to tell me the whole story, Twilight thought. I just hope things start making sense soon. There's got to be a logical explanation for all of this.

Twilight was broken out of her reverie by narrowly avoiding a rapidly plummeting gray figure. “Derpy!” she yelled, in no mood for the mailpony's usual nonsense. “Watch where you're going for once!”

The wall-eyed pegasus got up with a guilty look on her face. “Sorry, Twilight...”

Twilight softened. “No, I'm sorry. I'm just a little confused this morning, and so I'm a little stressed. Is there any mail for the library, as long as we're both here?”

“I dun think so... Have a good day, Twilight!” The pegasus flew off, making a beeline for Sugarcube Corner, no doubt to have a muffin before starting her rounds. Twilight yawned. I really am up early if Derpy's not even started her rounds yet... Twilight's stomach grumbled, as though to remind her she hadn't eaten. “...Okay, I'll have Spike make some pancakes, then I'll quiz Rarity about this. Surely, this can wait an hour or so...”

Meanwhile, Pinkie Pie was humming to herself while baking more muffins. Derpy had, as usual, bought most of the muffins in the shop, so she had to make sure there were some for others. She kept humming to herself as she worked, listening intently in case anypony came into the shop at this early hour, when suddenly she heard a very familiar, yet alien, voice say, “Aeiou.”

Pinkie turned around to see herself sticking her head out of a flour bin. Being Pinkie Pie, she trotted over, completely unafraid, and said cheerfully, “Wow, Twilight! Is this some kind of magic or trick or prank or—” She put her hoof to the duplicate's face, expecting to feel nothing but the slight tingle of an illusion.

Her hoof touched the other Pinkie's pink fur on her face. For a long moment, everything stood still as two very real Pinkie Pies stared at each other. Eventually, the Pinkie who had just been baking took her hoof away and backed up, genuinely disturbed. “Ha, ha, ha?” she laughed, unsure of herself as she stared at an almost perfect double of herself.

The other Pinkie hopped out of the flour bin and looked around the kitchen, saying nothing, her expression a serious, blank one that unnerved the “real” Pinkie to see something so glum etched on her face, or something that looked like her face. As the Element of Laughter backed up against a counter, frightened, her double drew closer, a slow, mirthless grin spreading across her face.