Contrast

The hour was late, although the night was still young. Everything seemed still and quiet, and many of the residents of Ponyville had already tucked themselves in for the night. Nevertheless, not everyone was as elusive of princess Luna's night as most of the ponies in the town.

Somewhere within the town, a large, tree-shaped library still stood enlightened, and within it, a purple, recently appointed princess stood near a desk with a book on it and kept constantly telling herself: "Just one last chapter."

Alas, even the relentless bookworm requires some rest, from time to time. With a rather deep yawn, Twilight decided to really make the current chapter the last one for the day.

As she drove her hoof across the final line of the page, she already began to slowly close the book, but then, all of a sudden, she heard a wicked laugh echoing through her library.

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Huh?" Twilight turned around, only to find herself utterly confused by the common, ordinary sight she was so used to seeing.

The laugh repeated itself.

"Who's there?" Twilight turned her head towards the last location she heard the laugh coming from. She turned her head again after hearing the laugh coming from a different corner. "This isn't funny!" she yelled at the air.

"Oh, but it is!" an anonymous voice replied.

"What is?" Twilight asked with her eyebrow raised.

"Everything!" the voice answered her and continued laughing. "After all, I am the element of laughter, am I not? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

None of this made any sense to Twilight. After spending a few seconds in a baffled state, she shook her head and continued interrogating the seemingly ominous presence.

"What do you want from me?"

"I want to laugh!" the voice cheerfully answered and laughed again.

"Oookay..." Twilight slowly replied and waited for the current laughing session to end. "Then why are you here?"

"To laugh, silly! Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!"

"Uggh!" Twilight facehoofed herself. "What I mean, Is - why do you have to do that here?" she corrected herself.

"Oh, but my dear Twilight, whom better to share my laughter with than with one of my best friends!" the voice replied and let out another friendly laugh.

"And just who do you think you are to be calling me your friend?" Twilight said in a demanding tone.

"Ha ha ha ha ha! Oh, Twilight! How can one so obsessed with books be so bad at paying attention? Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" the voice replied without changing its friendly tone, infuriating Twilight even more than before. "I'm the element of laughter!"

"Hah! Nice try, buster! That title already belongs to a pony named Pinkie Pie!" Twilight explained in a rather overconfident tone.

"Pinkie Pie?" The voice laughed, this time in a tone more derisive than friendly. "Please, that pony doesn't laugh nearly as much as me! I'm a much more worthy candidate of such a tittle. Ha ha ha ha ha ha!" As the voice kept on laughing, Twilight could only roll her eyes. "She was never really the element of laughter...Just like you're not really the element of magic."

"What!?" Twilight's eyes shot open and her ears perked up.

"Did you really think that walking into some old castle and successfully claiming an ancient power entitles you to become the rightful bearers of the elements of harmony?" the voice asked without so much as a shred of friendliness left in its tone. "You and your friends are nothing but a bunch of impostors and liars! I am even tempted to call you usurpers!"

"Usurpers?" Twilight repeated. "How can you say that? The elements chose us themselves! And even after they did so, we did not take the power for granted! We only ever used the elements to help maintain harmony in Equestria!" Twilight defended herself with conviction. "Eternal night would have only been the beginning of our worries had we not used the elements!"

"Ahh, eternal night..." the voice said in a relaxed state, as if fantasizing about the thought. "If only you knew how much I would have loved to see such a sight...Tell me - why did you have to go and deprive Equestria of such a wondrous blessing, hmm?"

"I don't know who you are or how you know so much about me and my friends, but clearly, you know very little of how things work in Equestria."

"Ooh, but that's where you're wrong, my dear Twilight. Hmm hmm hmm..." the owner of the voice laughed through a closed mouth. "I have existed longer than even your precious ruler...I've been around since the moment the elements of harmony chose their first six bearers." the manly voice explained in a relaxed tone.

"What!?" Twilight exclaimed. "But I thought that the elements came from the tree of harmony! And that we were the first six ponies to ever be chosen as vessels to carry them."

"Wrong again, Princess Twilight." The mysterious presence laughed quietly. "But enough about that." He changed the subject. "I believe we were discussing Pinkie Pie and her right to bear the tittle of the element of laughter."

"There's nothing to discuss!" Twilight insisted and stomped her hoof on the ground. "I don't know anyone more worthy of such a tittle than Pinkie Pie! You can laugh day and night, but your laughter will never come even close to being as authentic as hers!" Twilight spoke with much confidence in her eyes.

The voice burst into laughter. "Ooh! This is just rich! You actually believe that, don't you?" He kept laughing hysterically. "Why, that almost sounds like a challenge! A challenge that I most certainly have to accept!"

"You're seriously going to go through with this, aren't you?" Twilight asked snidely.

"I already have!" The voice quickly replied and kept laughing. "Why don't you see for yourself - how easily is your authentic laughter broken into tears!"

All of a sudden, Twilight's door shot wide open, and from it came the laughter of someone she recognized.

"Pinkie Pie?" Twilight asked and rubbed her bleary eyes.

"Aha ha ha ha ha! Hey Twilight!" Pinkie Pie greeted her friend and kept laughing. "Whatcha doing? Ha ha ha ha ha..." Her laughing sounded nothing like what it usually did. It sounded fake, and she herself seemed exhausted. She laughed whenever she wasn't talking, as though she was being forced to do so.

"Pinkie Pie! What's wrong?" Twilight asked in a rather concerned voice.

"Oh, nothing. Ha ha ha ha ha...You know...Ha ha ha..." With each passing laugh, she seemed more and more exhausted. "Just thought I'd visit my best friend and have some good laughs together. Ha...ha...haa..." All of a sudden, she collapsed to the ground in a sprawl. "I can't laugh anymore, Twilight!" she cried out, her laugh instantly turning into a sob. "He's just too good."

Twilight immediately rushed over to her friend and placed a hoof on her shoulder. "I don't understand...Who's too good?"

Pinkie Pie slowly lifted up her head and stared at Twilight with a depressed look. "I'm not really the element of laughter, Twilight."

At that instant, Twilight realized that she wasn't the only one hearing voices that evening.

"Ooh, Pinkie Pie," Twilight said in a compassionate tone and helped her friend get up. "Of course you are! And don't you let that voice in your head tell you otherwise."

"Voice in my head?" Pinkie asked with a raised eyebrow. "I haven't heard those since last week!" she explained, making Twilight giggle. "I'm talking about him!" Pinkie Pie said out and pointed behind herself. "Huh?" As both of them looked behind her, they didn't see anyone there. "He was just here!"

"Wait...you could see him!?" Twilight asked incredulously.

"Duh!" Pinkie Pie instantly replied. "How could I be talking to someone that I can't see? That would mean that I'd be talking to myself! Why would I say him if I was talking to myself?" she asked and gasped loudly. "Hey! You don't secretly think I'm actually a stallion, do you?"

"Oh, Pinkie." Twilight laughed. "Being the element of laughter means being able to make others laugh, not just yourself, and there's no one better at it than you," Twilight gladly admitted.

"Heeey! You're right!" Pinkie enthusiastically exclaimed and bounced up in the air. "If I can make all of you laugh, then it means that I've created six times as many laughs as him! And if I can manage to make the entire town laugh, then that's...umm..." She held her hooves up and stared at them as if trying to count. "How many ponies are there in Ponyville?"

Twilight giggled. "A lot."

"A lot more laughs than him!" She bounced up and then pointed over yonder. "Whaddaya think of that, huh?" she told the invisible presence in a cocky tone.

"Pinkie..." Twilight got her attention. "He's gone."

Pinkie Pie leaned closer to Twilight and whispered in her ear, "That's what he wants us to think!" She suddenly bounced off into the night. "I have to make the entire town laugh! Right now!"

"Pinkie, Wait!" Twilight shouted. "It's too late! Everpony is asleep already!"

"It's never to late for laughter!" Pinkie Pie shouted back and kept bouncing forward.

"Celestia, what have I done!?"