Love Conquers All

Pinkie sat on the cold floor of the basement, she had been sitting there for hours just watching her captive love sleep. She didn't think anything, she didn't move, she didn't speak one word. The mare was content with just watching the blue side move up and down with every breath. It was soothing. Earlier in the evening Pinkie had reapplied the ointment and changed the bandages, all without Rainbow Dash saying a single word.

For the rest of the evening, the party pony had sat beside her love and watched over her silently. Pinkie just loved everything about Rainbow Dash: Her beautiful multi-colored mane, her smooth sky blue coat, her determined magenta eyes. Pinkie could just watch her all day, and she did.

Now though, Pinkie could feel herself nodding off, she could feel her sleep deprived mind aching for rest. The mare laid down right next to her captive. She could feel the warmth radiating from the body next to her, the steady breathing gently soothed her to sleep.

--

Pinkie woke up in a void, the infinite darkness seemed to be without direction. She was not standing on anything solid, she wasn't even sure she was standing. She felt as formless as the void she was in, her very consciousness seemed stripped down to its bare components.

"Hello?" her own voice emanated from the formless blob of thought she was stripped down to. "Is anypony here?" Her voice echoed off of invisible walls.

"Hi there!" She knew that voice, it was happy, bouncy. It was hers. Then she saw herself bouncing towards where she was floating. She was a vibrant pink, her eyes shining blue with joy, her mane and tail were as poofy as ever.

"W-Who...are you..?" She stood in awe of her doppelganger, who just responded happily.

"I'm you silly! Well, a mental representation of the positive aspects of your personality.....I think." The Positive Pinkie tapped her chin. "Or am I a mental representation of what you want to be? Or both? There are so many of us, I lose track. I mean wow, there are LOTS of us...me..you? What pronoun do I use here?" Pinkie realized for the first time how annoying she could be when she ranted on and on like that.

"So, you're me?" If Pinkie had an eyebrow to raise at the time, it would've almost reached her mane.

"Yepperooni, and I'm you!" The positive pony bounced around the formless original. "See, I'm all happy and stuff because I got all my friends to support me. I get to make them smile, which makes me smile and that's what matters!" The faux Pinkie produced balloons from nowhere and let them float into the void.

"But sometimes, I get sad..." Another, darker voice entered the mix. This form materialized from the darkness, it was how she looked right now in the real world. Her mane was a stiff as a board, her colors were dimmed, and her eyes looked like they could freeze lava.

"You're me too?" The formless blob of thought was grasping this...sorta. The dark Pinkie nodded.

"Pinkamina Diane Pie. Even though I confessed my love for Rainbow Dash, all I got was rejection...I isolated myself from  my friends and slipped deeper into depression." Pinkie guessed that Pinkamina represented her current state, her darker side. "I can hear the voices, telling me what to do. I follow them blindly because I have no one else to talk to." Tears came to the depressed representation's eyes. "I don't want to be rejected by them too.."

Pinkie Pie couldn't cry in her current state, heck she didn't even have a corporeal form in this state. But she connected with Pinkamina, heck it was her mind telling her this. But what was the message it was trying to deliver.

"Everyday you always try to be a supermare who tries to make everyone happy," The positive pony blew on a kazoo.

"Or a depressed wreck who hurts her friends and love..." Pinkamina was now holding onto a picture of Rainbow Dash.

"You can come back to me and be happy again!" Sugarcube Corner's front room all of a sudden materialized around the happy Pinkie, with a banner that said 'Welcome back Pinkie Pie!' hanging from the ceiling.

"Or you can stay with me.." The basement materialized around Pinkamina, She was standing next to a sleeping Rainbow Dash. "and Rainbow Dash. You can have her to yourself forever, you can care for her like a proper marefriend would." Pinkamina smiled sadly and ran a hoof through Dash's mane.

"So tell us" The two copies said together. "Who do you want to be?"

--

Rainbow Dash felt something shivering against her side. She immediately thought it was Tank, as he would usually lay with her on cold nights in order to keep himself warm. The pegasus wrapped a hoof around the creature, only to be met with a soft coat instead of a smooth shell. Rainbow opened her eyes, curled up to her was Pinkie Pie. The pink pony was shivering and whimpering in her sleep.

Now Dash was a pony who was loyal to her friends, heck, it was her element of harmony. But did this mare, who had maimed her, kidnapped her, and tied her to a post deserve her loyalty? But, like the kind of pony she was, Dash kept her hoof there and even pulled Pinkie a little closer.

"Hey....It's okay Pinkie. It's just a nightmare.." Pinkie seemed to calm with her words. "And...and...I forgive you. Even after all of this, I forgive you. I always will...not just because I'm the element of Loyalty, but because I love all my friends, no matter what they do. That includes you, Pinkie Pie." The mare seemed to completely calm, her face turned into a light smile.

--

Pinkie heard Rainbow Dash's words, even inside of her dream. She felt overjoyed, she felt enlightened. Sure, Rainbow Dash didn't love her like she loved Dash, but just friend love was good enough for her. She turned to her two copies and went over to the happier of the two.

"I want to be happy again."

--

Rainbow Dash had closed her eyes again, but if they had been opened, she would've seen Pinkie's mane return to its voluminous state, and her colors brighten.