Door To Insanity

Pinkamena Diane Pie awoke with a hesitant feeling, tension all through her body, along with the horrible aching she felt inside of her; her mind was fogged up with confusion and horror and surprise, but mostly confusion.

Pinkie sighed silently to herself. It must have all been a dream...no, a nightmare. A horrible one that she just been able to fight through, at the very last minute. The very, very last, awaking just in time to feel the warmth of the daylight in her bedroom at SugarCube Corner.

The pink party pony made her way out of the pull of the warm blankets easily, but when she did she felt something. Something...weird? No, it couldn't be something weird. It was another feeling...something she couldn't exactly say, but she could tell that there was something wrong with her image.

Before she knew it she was in the bathroom, knowing the mirror would be a great solution to this sensation.

But when she looked in the mirror, she jumped, screaming.

Her mane was deflated and flat. Her colors were still dull, and her eyes were cold and expressionless. When she searched for her happiness she couldn't find any, and felt lost, looking at the mirror as if she was a complete stranger.

But maybe this was just a reaction to that bad dream. Not that it was real. No. Not that it was real. Never.

Knock, knock.

Pinkamena recognized that knock. Since she was a genius herself, she recognized it to be Twilight Sparkle, the purple bookworm who lived in that library.

Maybe she can help... Pinkie's hair or color did not change, but she felt a quick spark of hope and happiness rise inside of her. Forgetting everything, she opened the door to see...

Twilight Sparkle with a worried look on her face.

"Erm...hello, Pinkie," Twilight Sparkle stepped inside, smirking slightly, as if something was wrong.

But of course something was wrong. Pinkie Pie's hair was deflated, and she just happened to have some twisted dream. But how would Twilight know beforehand?

Twilight laughed, only it was the slight kind of laugh when somepony was pretending to be laughing or happy or something. This librarian was up to something.

Pinkie squinted. "Take a seat," Pinkie said slowly, thinking about the possibilities in her mind.

The three possibilities that may or may not be correct, Pinkie thought to herself, 1. She is worried because my hair is deflated. 2. She heard from somepony I've been having a bad day. Or 3...

No! Pinkie laughed to herself, That'd be silly. My dream isn't real. Dreams aren't real. Duh! I'm smart; I should know.

Then something made her freeze. That was it. That confirmed that she was wrong. Really wrong. Really.

'You're stupider than you think, kid.'

Pinkamena closed her eyes, her skin burning. Everything was true. Everything.

Your plan...? Pinkie thought. Than she thought it over. And over.

'It's in action,' the stallion said, laughter following his statement.

It was true. It was all true. She woke up with a huge pain, and her mane was deflated, and...

Pinkie looked worriedly at Twilight, who was blinking into her soul...the mare who knew about her from that stallion's book.

"So...your abusive parents?"

She had to say that! Pinkie shuddered, every little thing coming back to her. The hurt from every beating, the pain of insults and ignorance, and the jealousy of her sisters when she had gotten her cutie mark before them. Everything came towards her, and her eyes began to tear up. She never wanted a family like that, but was forced to love them anyway.

'Oh, my poor little thing...' the voice said.

But this time, she didn't resist the urge. Her eyes stopped tearing up, and instead glowed red for a millisecond. Twilight caught a glimpse of it, but she thought it was just some hallucination.

Pinkie's worried expression turned into an angry, fierce one.

"Get out!"

She pushed her friend out of her room, and quickly slammed the door, before realizing her actions. It was rude, nasty, and just plain mean. Wait...

She thought back to her dream. The stallion, the brown one with the weird, spiky mane cut, and how he pushed her into the corruption hole. And that was working. Working...

It was working fine.

And these were just his first adjustments.