Pinkies Torment

     It's been three months since I got my body back.   I've been wandering equstria just trying to find my place.   Many think I'm the pink party pony, Pinkie Pie.  I have to convince them I'm not then look at their sad expressions.   I've learned to control the changeling powers of taste, finally.  Tasting everyponies feelings was getting annoying and confused me for when I was really hungry or eating.

I learned I can transform if I need to, but it hurt so bad I almost passed out when I tried it.  She must have a higher pain threshold than I can imagine.   I haven't felt or heard Pinkie since that day so, I guess she's really locked away.  If only I had done better before I ran away from Ponyville.  I ran from my friends, the Cakes.  The entire life I knew is gone now and I have to start over.  I can't throw parties or do crazy things like pinkie.  She has, had, more energy than I ever could.

Pinkamena Diane pie.  Worthless pony at large.

I've been to every major city just to see them.  Cities are grand and beautiful and to feel the ground beneath my own hooves.   The sounds of the cities and smells of the air is refreshing and I feel alive.  I smile more now.  My own smile.  On my own face.  I'm tired of traveling.  Maybe I can go home to the farm.   Mom and dad will be pleased to see me.  They may even smile a little.   I think I'll do that.

I'm laying in my old bed in my old room in my old house on this old farm.  Then it began, again.

Pinkamena?  Wake up sleepy head, raise up from the bed!

"Pinkie?"  I shout.  I still have my body.  "What do you want? How did you get out?"

I've watched quietly for the past few days.  I wanted to see the old farm.   It really is kinda, really, not super exciting.  This place needs a party!

"Then go back to your room to plan it and never come out again."

Oh, I might,"  she giggles...

"What are you'll laughing for?  You don't have my body anymore so all you can do is try to annoy me."  I feel chills through my body.

I had fun last night while you were sleeping.

"What?!  You took my body again?   How?  Why not keep it and run away?   You could have just locked me up again.   What's the game this time pinkie?"

Oh, no game.   Well, I guess it's like hide and seek, so a little game.  It'll be FUN!

"I'm not playing."

Mom and dad wish you would.

I sit up and look around my old room.  There should be the sound and smell of breakfast cooking.   It's too quiet.  What did she do?  I jump from bed and open my door to silence.   It's eerily quiet. I trot slowly to my parents room and freeze.   Blood.   Pooling under the door.   Oh Celestia, no.

Why wait?  Just open the door and the game will begin.  I hesitate while I hear Pinkie giggle.  Slowly I grab the knob in my mouth and turn the handle.  I push it open slowly and feel resistance.  "Oh Celestia, no.  Please no."  Pushing the door enough to slide in; the room is almost pitch black.  The sun is rising but the windows are covered and no light is getting in.  I breathe in and don't smell anything.  I turn on my Changeling senses and nothing shows.  If one or both of them are dead...  I won't know until I see them.

I choke on the thought as I feel behind the door.  There isn't anything.  What was the resistance?  Where's the blood from?  "Damn you, Pinkie."  I say through my clenched teeth.  "Damn you for playing me like this."  She doesn't respond.  Only complete silence surrounds me.  I'm feeling uneasy.  She should be giggling, gloating or ... something.  My ears turn trying to find anything but all I hear is my breath quickening.  I should get out.

I feel a drip on my nose.  I can't see.  I need to turn on some light.  I know where their lantern is; parents are creatures of habit.  I feel a drip on my neck as I turn.  I freeze again, listening.  Silence.  My breathing is getting deeper, I need to stay calm.  This is Pinkies game and I'm going to win.  Find mom and dad and get them out.  Then I run as far away as I can away from everything.  It's the only way to keep my loved ones safe.

I move and hear a drip sound.  "What is that?"  I whisper.  Nothing.  That damned silence is too bucking much.  I feel for the lantern and bump into something.  It's not a table or bed.  It's soft though.  Could be the quilt mom made for dad before I left.  I can't feel the lantern much less matches, I have to go out and get the one from my room.  As I walk out the dim light of the dawn is filtering in through the windows.  I breathe in and sigh.  I go to my room and light my lantern and look at my nose.

"Red?"  RED?  I feel my pulse start to race and my breath catching pace.  No, it's a trick.  She wouldn't do something like that.

I grab the lantern and go back to my parents room.  "Mommy? Daddy?"  I can hardly enter.  What could she have done to them?  What horrors await me inside their room?  I walk back into the room, lantern trembling between my teeth as I clench my eyes shut.  "Dear Celestia, please."

I open my eyes quickly to get it over with, like taking a band-aid off quickly so it won't hurt as much.  Lies.  The terror fills my heart as my eyes adjust to the room.  I gasp and drop the lantern and feel myself start to tremble.

"Damn you, Pinkie."  She giggles psychotically.

Everything is as it should be in the room except quilts nailed over the window.  There's a paint buck wrapped in the damned quilt hanging from the ceiling dripping BUCKING wet paint.  "PINKIE!?"  Her giggling is drowning out the ambient noise I hear around me.  I pick up the lantern and pull the door open.  Bad choice as the blanket lets loose the bucket and it falls to the floor splattering red paint across the room.  The lantern falls to the floor as my mouth hangs open. "Mom is gonna kill us..."

If you can find her before it's too late.

"Too late?  What did you DO?!?  PINKIE?  Answer me!"  Another silence.  Great, another round of silence.  Where to next?  I walk down the hall.  I don't know where to go.  I listen for any noise and the silence is my reward.  The swaying lantern casts shadows as I walk and I imagine my parents tied up hurting somewhere.  The attic?  The basement?  Hell, back in Ponyville?  I gasp.  A noise.  Something.

"H-hello?"  I ask the silence.  Like it'll answer and tell me everything I need to know.  I brush my flat flowing mane from my face and move my head around stretching my neck.  I feel a crack.  This is it.  I broke my neck.  I'm going to be paralyzed at my back half and-  I'm moving fine.  Damn phobia of breaking my neck or back.  I don't like that feeling.  It always makes me think I've hurt myself and won't be able to work anymore.

I take a breath in and hold it.  I walk toward the noise and exhale.  The noise comes again.  It's so familiar.  The door is closed so I open it.  Locked.  Seriously?  "Of all the dumb ways to try to keep me out you're going to lock a door?"  I turn and buck it, breaking the lock and part of the frame.  The room is just a normal guest room with a toy doll on the bed.  It chirps at me, I remember it.  It was Maud's back when we were fillies and she named it Stone.  It chirped every morning as the sun rose.  Magic.

I leave the room.  "This is getting boring.  Is the game to BORE me to death."  I leave the lantern and run downstairs.  The sun is brighter down here on the main floor.  More windows and that also means less places to hide.  I listen and look around for anything.  I hear a whimper.  Yes, that's what I needed to hear, no.  It wasn't.  I feel fear gripping me as I run to the basement door and buck it open knocking the door down the stairs.  "Daddy?"  I call into the dark basement.  The scent of mold and dirt fill my nose as I quickly descend the stairs and listen again.  Pitch blackness.  Damn it again.  That stupid lantern.

I don't need it, I have to find daddy.  "Daddy?" I whisper moving deeper into the abyss.  The light from upstairs is all that I can see and it only goes a few steps down so I'm on my own.  Shoot, I jammed my leg.  Ah!  Again.  What the heck, spider webs?!  Ick?   Eww, muddy sludge.  "Seriously, Pinkie.  Can't we stop this stupid game.  I'm getting all messy and... I don't think this is a game.  I think it's just a dream.  I'll wake myself up.  Watch."  I run into the darkness, trip and feel several things fall on me as crashing and rumbling echo through the room.

I guess I'm awake and my back hurts.  I'm getting the buck out of here.  I do my best to get out of the dark mess I've made and go upstairs.  I see myself in the light and I'm, filthy.  I have black goop in my fur and mud all across my legs from the knees to my hooves.  Nails and bolts are stuck to me too.

I shake them off the best I can and run around the corner.  I saw something.  What was it?  I run into it and scream as it covers me, surrounds me and encloses me.  I feel my breath as I pant in fear then stop struggling.  It's a curtain. Hanging in the middle of the side doorway.  I hear Pinkie giggle again.

"Are you just going to prank me all morning or are you going to give me a hint on what you did to my parents?" I shout into the kitchen.

You don't need to yell, I'm right here, silly filly.  If you wanted a hint all you had to do was ask.  Where does daddy... *Kill the chickens.***

I feel my blood run cold.  The barn.  It's full of sharp weapons and tools from a lifetime of breaking rocks and being a reservist in the military.  My daddy was always proud of what he had accomplished in his youth and had stories of what each was used for.  Always training stories but he spoke of them as though he'd taken them into battle.

I gallop out of the house and to the barn as fast as I can.  I hear windows shattering and things breaking as I leave the house as the shock wave follows me.  I run into the barn and shout.  "MOMMY?  DADDY??"

"Pinkamena?"  It's moms voice.

"Thank Celestia.  Are you okay?  Where are you?"

"Pinkamena?  Is it over?  Is it okay to come out?"

"What do you mean, mommy?  Where are you?  Everything's okay."  Mommy opens a door in the floor at the far side of the barn then she and daddy come out.  I run to them and embrace them into a hug that I never want to end.  "I'm so glad you're okay, mommy.  Daddy.  I was so worried when I couldn't find you."

"Find us?  Pinkamena Diane Pie!  You told us there was a twister coming and to get to the cellar.  If ya were trying to fool us so you could get that welcome home cake I made all to yourself, you're in big trouble.   Ya whippersnapper."

"Cake?  No, mommy.  I woke up and couldn't find you so I looked all over the house and you weren't there and..."   Shit.

I hear Pinkie giggling like a crazy mare again.

"And what, Pinkamena?"  Father asks.  I let them go from the hug and sit a few paces between us and hang my head.

"I looked around the house to find you."

"Well, let's go back and discuss your punishment, young mare.  Twisters aren't something we find funny out here."  No crap, mother.  A dirt devil full of rocks can strip flesh from even the best pony out here.

"PINKAMENA"  Well, I'm dead.  I tracked mud and threw black stuff and nails across the kitchen and ground floor.  Broke into my sisters room and ... oh Luna save me, spilt red paint across my parent room.  It looks like i tried to clean it up with their favorite quilt.  After I've been yelled at and beaten by both my parents I'm kicked out of the house.  I can't even collect what little I had to travel with from my room.  I'm broke and homeless.

Wasn't that game great?!

"What.  The.  TARTARUS PINKIE?!  You got us kicked out of home.  It'll take hours for them to clean and fix most of the mess.  They haven't even seen the basement yet.  What?  Wha-?  I can't even think right now!?"  I'm shouting at a rock imagining it's her and her poofy fake hair and that smile and wide eyes.  I wish I could punch her in the face.

The game was command and control!  When you fell asleep it was a LOTTA work but I got control for a little while.  Well, it was like, an hour before you woke up, but I was able to set all that up.  The lesson is easy!

"Lesson?  What the buck could I learn from you after that?!"

She giggles again in that cheerful voice.  I control your entire life.  You can't run or hide from me.  I'll get some day and it'll be so much fun to get out of this prison and be free again.  Hey!  Can we get a cake?  Oh, wait.  I ate the cake earlier.  You've gotta burp, it was soooooooo good I ate it in two bites and even wrote a thank you letter.  It was so yummy.

I feel my heart sink and I wonder if it'll fall out of my body.  She ate my cake.  She destroyed my parents' things and made a mess, then, got me kicked out of my own family house.  "You win, Pinkie."