Pinkie was walking along the ceiling while a storm of chocolate rain beat a torrential downpour outside, falling from cotton candy clouds.

The ground - or sky - was a comfortingly familiar patchwork of rainbow colours that bent up and formed a wall in the far distance, completely enclosing the house, and hundreds of miles all around. It formed a dome, if you looked outside the house with one to one million rooms, like the inside of a bouncy ball.

She deftly moved around the chandelier hanging upward - downward? - giving it a friendly, bubbly nod. The little glass beads waved back, speaking to her. She, of course, didn't understand, Pinkie didn't know chandelier.

Without breaking stride, she stepped onto the wall, moving through a sideways door and into the sitting room. The floor was made of cloud, and the ceiling was like one giant cushion filled with foam. The walls were almost weirdly normal, simply decorated with countless portraits of weird scenes, some made her head ache to look at. There were no chairs, but there was a fireplace that gushed water, flooding the right wall up to several feet, as if that was the true 'down' here.

Of course, the rules didn't work like that.

Floating aimlessly through the air near the waterplace, lightly munching on a book, was the oddest creature that Pinkie had ever forgotten about. He had the head of a pony, but a horn from a goat, a deer antler, a single fang - something must have happened to the other one - and he had a weird beard. His body was long and thin, and he had the left hand of a chicken, and the right hand of something else. A scaly red tail, a scaly leg, too! But it was green. Sometimes he'd change it up a bit. One time, he had been the entire floor, and another he had been her.

His rotating, floating body slowly turned so his eyes locked onto her. They were yellow, almost sickly so, with burning red iris. Those were the only things that never changed.

His name was Discord, and he was her friend - even if he scared her sometimes.

"Pinkie," He greeted, his body twisting slightly. He took another bite out of his chosen book, "Good night. I found a book I can really bite into, you wouldn't have heard of it. Would you like to try?" He must have been a King of somewhere, Pinkie had always thought - a Prince - because his voice was regal, powerful in a strange, alien way. Like the honeycomb she had once.

Pinkie giggled and hopped up and off the walls, starting to float through the air nearer to her friend. "I'll try!"

He offered the book toward her, and she took a big, chomping bite out of it. The cover tasted like chocolate, but the pages and words flowed down her throat like an adventure novel. Their surroundings flipped a bit, a portrait melting into existence on the wall. It depicted a beautiful, white-walled, many-towered city that sat proud and fair on the side of a mountain; its battlements glittering with steel.

"You got a good bit," Discord noted, twisting in the air and taking another bite himself. "Did you see how you got in this time?"

Pinkie shook her head.

Discord sighed, disappointed. He had yelled and shouted at her when she first woke up here as a little filly, demanding to know the crack she found. Pinkie hadn't understood and cried the entire night. That had annoyed him.

"Did you at least bring me any new jokes?" He asked, using a single talon of his foot to propel himself off a wall, continuing his slow rotation around the room.

"I asked my Daddy for one," Pinkie said, lowering her head at the memory. "He yelled at me, and s-said he'd hit me if I didn't leave him alone."

"That's not a very good joke," Discord yawned, sounding bored, immediately dismissing her presence.

"C-can you play me some songs again?" Pinkie asked, feeling suddenly small next to her friend. He was nice, sometimes, and super fun! But... But when he got bored, that was scary. Even when he was angry it was better. When Discord was bored, Pinkie felt like less than nothing, a worm - no, not even a worm. Like she didn't even exist. Like she could just cease to be, and he wouldn't care, notice, or remember she was there at all.

Discord didn't reply for a few seconds, and she was scared he was going to ignore her all night again and leave her alone in this admittedly fun place. But... he snapped his claws, and songs began to fill the space, singing in unfamiliar voices, about unfamiliar things.

Pinkie danced all night and sang along as best she could, the songs never repeated. As always, the night passed in a blur - and as much as Discord was his usual grumpy self, Pinkie could see him watching her, and she could tell he was smiling on the inside! Probably...

Soon, though, she felt herself slip a little out of space - falling flat to the ceiling. She shivered, knowing she was waking up. "D-discord?" She asked, feeling herself start to shake a little, putting her hooves on her head.

There was silence for a few seconds, Pinkie keeping her head buried in her hooves. She asked every night, would he ignore her this time?

Eventually, he replied, "What, Pinkie?" Sounding dismissive, but she felt his burning red gaze turn to her.

"C-can you keep me here?"

"No. It's dreadfully boring, at least without you I get some quiet. Find me a few more jokes before you go back to sleep."

Pinkie shivered at his tone, and curled in on herself, waiting for the inevitability of the physical world.

Before she had the chance to fade, though, Discord spoke unbidden, "What was the name of that dreadful town you lived in again? Something Dumbville, wasn't it?"

"R-rockville," She managed, unable to open her eyes now.

Before it all faded, she heard Discord repeat to himself, "Rockville... Hmmm..."

Then, the dream world vanished, and she knew she wouldn't remember a thing. She never did, not until the next time she slept.

Pinkamena Diane Pie woke up humming a happy song. Or maybe it was deceptively happy? She wasn't sure.

It wasn't a particular tune, she just had it in her head, even though she had never heard a musical performance in her life - if you didn't count Flat Tone, who would come in from the lowlands to sing in the tavern.

Pinkie didn't. He wasn't very good.

She hopped out of bed, the tune in her head now conjuring words, their source unknown, "Feels like this night will never end, doop doot doot, I guess it just depends~"

Pinkie skipped across her little room, avoiding the rotting wooden boards at her feet, her light impacts on the floor causing a now-familiar musky scent to rise from beneath her. She ducked out of her doorway, door long gone, before the scent could grow too prevalent - she wouldn't want to start coughing before work!

The familiar hall of the Rock Family Home was making its windy-creaking noises, and wet, cold air was blowing through the holes in the walls. The wooden planks under her were solid, resting on cold, firm rocky earth. Her room was the only room with the musky ground you had to be careful on, she had gotten it for her fifteenth birthday a few months ago. She didn't have to share with Maud anymore, but her cough had gotten worse.

Pinkie missed sharing Maud's room, even if she always came in really late.

The kitchen was empty, Pinkie was the only one who had to get up before dawn. Maud worked at the trading post these days. Limestone had run away years ago and took Marble with her. Dad's back meant he had to do the books, and had been into his Angry Juice last night. Mom hadn't left the house in a long, long time.

That left Pinkie the only one who worked in the 'Rock Farm,' as she called it as a filly.

She worked in the mine, and she hated it more than her room. It was dark, it was scary, and the others didn't like it when she sang. It also made her cough worse. She wished she could go work in the Trading Post with Maud, but you had to be able to read, and Pinkie had never been taught.

Pinkie made herself oatmeal, starting a fire in their wood stove and getting it to a roaring warmth, as she did most mornings. She spiced it up a little, adding some of the sugar she saved in her mane, smiling a big, private smile as she stirred in that precious spoon of golden crystals. Dad would call it a waste, but to Pinkie it felt magical.

She took a single spoonful of her oatmeal, and closed her eyes, shuddering with pleasure at the small bit of sweetness against the grains. Mmm...

Then, the wooden boards in the hall creaked and she jumped a little, looking over - oh, Dad was going to be so mad -

It was Maud. Pinkie had always thought that her second oldest sister must have stolen all the bigness meant for her, because while Pinkie was very small for her age, and especially weak for an earth pony, Maud was like a mountain in the doorway. Tall, broad, muscled. Her flat, even expression would have been intimidating to anyone else, but Pinkie knew her sister too well. She had bruises on her flanks again. Pinkie always wondered where she got it, no one could fight her sister, she was too strong, and it happened alot recently.

Pinkie beamed at her, "Mauddie! You're up really early! I was making some oatmeal," She glances back behind her sister to see if there were stirrings from her parents. She leaned in, smiling a little, seeing her own reflection in Maud's eyes, "Wanna have some of mine? I put," she lowered her voice to a whisper, "Sugar in it. I spent a few of my bits on it at the post when you weren't there, dad would be -"

Pinkie felt sudden, sticky itching in her lungs, pushing right to the forefront of her mind and throat - she hacked back a cough, and immediately lowered herself to the ground, trying to control her breathing. Another hacking cough forced its way out of her lungs, burning like acid, then another, and another. She quickly grew a little light-headed, but she could feel Maud move over to her, feel her sister's hooves rubbing her back, and hear her gravel-like voice muttering flat, soothing words. Pinkie lost count of her coughs, and tried to sing in her head; 'Smile, smile, smile! Fill my heart up with -' She felt more light-headed, and finally hacked up a mess of goop onto the ground, ugly, grey, and black.

Pinkie took a breath of fresh, warm air, gasping for several seconds as she caught her breath. She could make out Maud's words, now, "I'm here, Pinkie. I'm here..." It felt reassuring, she could make out the slight inflexions, the concern colouring her voice and thoughts just slightly. Pinkie leaned against her, getting her breathing under control.

Before Pinkie got the chance to speak, Maud stopped her reassurances and said, simply and quietly, "Do not give your pay to Father today, Pinkie. After work, I wish for you to find me at the Trade Post."

This confused Pinkie, and she looked up to Maud, mind still a bit sluggish after her coughing. She replied in an equally quiet voice, "But Dad will be mad..."

"It won't matter, Pinkie," Maud replied, voice dropping a single note deeper. "We are going on a trip. Just you and I, we are going to visit Limestone."

Pinkie felt her heart jump in joy, "Limestone? How is she? Is Marble going to be there? Where does -"

Maud placed a hoof on Pinkie's muzzle, and she forced herself to be silent. "Limestone's house is in the Lowlands, far to the south. Near Canterlot. Limestone is an apprentice chef to a family of Cake bakers and is finishing her training soon. We are going there to stay with her. There will be lots of sugar."

It sounded like heaven. Pinkie missed Limestone alot... She was so cool, but she had run off with Marble, Pinkie's twin. Maybe their mine would be better than the one in Rockville, too? It must be if they had a baker in their town. "Woah," she muttered against Maud's hoof, "Bakers? And sugar? That sounds amazing," She wanted to shout but held it back. "What 'bout Marble? Is she working in their mine?"

"No," Maud replied, voice gaining another note, a low, soft one. Pinkie was familiar with it; it entered her older sister's voice whenever Pinkie spoke of the coal mine. "She goes to school there."

"Woah, they have a school?" Pinkie had heard of schools from the traders who made the long trek up the mountain to their mine, but she had never seen one. You learned all kinds of things in school! Like how to read, count, dance, jump, cook, play... She could probably even throw parties at school!

"They do. Great Uncle Basalt sent me some bits, and I've been hiding them and saving up. I've got us a ride on a wagon down the mountain, so we won't have to walk. Uncle also said that when he got back from the war, he'd visit, and take you to a Doctor in Canterlot." Maud's voice gained a barely perceptible, slight quiver at those words. It made Pinkie feel bad, she wanted her sister to smile, not worry about some dumb cough.

"I get to go to Canterlot?"

"Yes."

"Will I see a Princess?" They had all heard the Princess' speech on the only radio in town, the one at the Trade Post, but it had been pretty scratchy.

"You might. Uncle Basalt is in the Royal Guard."

"Woah..." Pinkie felt a smile come across her face at the possibility. She wondered if Princesses liked to party? What did they even mine in Canterlot? She knew it was on a mountain, so it was probably alot like Rockville.

"Now, Pinkie," Maud continued, her voice getting even lower, her strong foreleg pulling Pinkie against her warm side. "There's just one more thing, alright? You can't tell Dad we're going. Think about it... Like one of your surprise parties, ok? If you tell Dad, we won't be able to go, and it won't be any fun - because he'll know we're going on a trip."

Pinkie nodded, she loved surprise parties and knew Dad could get really grouchy at even a whisper of one. "I Pinkie Promise!" She swore, putting a hoof over her eye as she looked up at Maud. The very corner of Maud's stony face twitched slightly, as one corner of her mouth ticked up.

Pinkie beamed at her.

Then, she heard dad's slurred voice from the other room, deep, and angry, "Maud! Get in here! Now!"

Maud stiffened next to her, and Pinkie's good mood evaporated. She felt her sister kiss her on the forehead, "Enjoy your oatmeal, Pinkie. I'll see you after work."

Pinkie nodded and watched as her sister stood and walked toward Dad's room. She turned away after the door shut behind Maud and ate her oatmeal as quickly as she could, the sweet taste of sugar like ash in her mouth.

Going to work was better than listening.

That night was the last Pinkie and Maud were ever seen in Rockville.

They came for Hurricane's mother in the night.

She had just kicked off the ground to soar upstairs when the heavy banging impacted the knocker. She evened herself out and settled on the second landing, looking down as the Butler approached and peered through the peephole. She saw him stiffen, and that made Hurricane worried - their Butler used to be a Night Guard. He didn't get worried.

Hurricane stood watching, waiting, her wings fluttering at her side as he took a breath, and opened the door. She could make out figures standing on the porch, but no details.

The Butler's even, cool voice requested, "And what business do you have here, gentlemares? I am afraid the Consul is not taking visitors."

Lightning flashed outside, lighting up the windows, casting half a dozen shadows past the Butler. Hurricane felt her throat go dry. What was going on?

Her mother's voice came from somewhere beneath Hurricane, "Let them in, Star. I've been expecting them."

Hurricane heard mother's gold and silver hoofshoes hit the compacted cloud flooring and saw her move into sight. She was in her regalia, her laurel sitting upon her head, toga wrapped about her. She stood tall and proud, like the Consul she was. But... She didn't have her wingblades on. Mom never went anywhere without them. They belonged to Grand Consul West Wind, Hurricane thought mom loved them more than her.

Star glanced back at mother, then bowed his head and moved aside from the door.

Ponies moved inside, all dressed in dark colours and suits. All were pegasi, except for one at the back, who was a unicorn dressed in a very dark red robe, almost black, jewels glittering across the hems, seeming to glow with their own light. They wore a mask made of steel and gold, it seemed to burn in the light of their home, and the air around them shimmered ever so slightly, like a misty haze. A deep hood hid all of their mane and fur, only allowing their long horn to pierce through a hole in the top.

Hurricane knew what Intelligence Service looked like, but that unicorn scared her. Mother had never taught her about any group that dressed like that.

There was silence in the entrance hall for a time, and Hurricane heard another set of hooves, hearing her father's voice speak up, out of her sight, "East?" He asked, "Is this..."

Her mother took a breath, and spoke, "It is. Go upstairs."

Hurricane heard her father took a breath and saw him move up next to mom, pressing his side lightly against hers - he didn't move to go upstairs. Her mother glanced at him a moment but didn't speak any further to him, instead looking to the group of a dozen ponies.

"You needn't have brought so many, or your esteemed self, Vinculum. I will come willingly."

Vinculum? Was that their name or title? In any case, the unicorn said nothing. Instead, the lead IS agent stepped forward, "Then in the name of the Princess, I am placing you under immediate arrest, Consul East Wind."

"Have I been issued a Shadow Warrant, Agent?"

Silence hung in the air, the tension thick enough to cut. Hurricane wanted to scream. Her mother couldn't be Shadow Warranted! What was going on - this wasn't right! She moved to jump down, widening her wings.

Then, the unicorn looked up at her, that metal mask glinting against the light. She could see their eyes. Icy, steel-grey. They seemed to pin her in place, and she felt her bravery abandon her - why couldn't she move? Hurricane felt her hooves shake, unable to tear her gaze away.

"Enough, Vinculum," Her mother's voice spoke up, angry and low. "I'm not resisting. Cease your intimidation of my daughter."

Vinculum looked away, his gaze passing like a dark storm, and Hurricane almost sank to the ground in relief. All eyes were on her now, but only for a few moments - her mother's lingered the longest before turning back to the IS agents.

The leader spoke again, "We have been ordered to inform you that you are being brought for interrogation, and Princess Cadance may allow a plea deal."

"I already said I was coming," her mother repeated, voice lowering several notes. "Hurricane, come here, quickly."

Hurricane managed to spread her wings at her mother's words, and hop off the landing, descending down to land next to her mother. For the first time that night, Consul East Wind's head dipped, so her golden eyes could meet Hurricane's.

"In my study, on my desk, are my wing blades, Hurricane. They are yours, as is your right as my daughter. Even if I return, I am no longer deserving of them."

Hurricane shook a little. Hers? They weren't supposed to be hers until mother... She felt her eyes prick with tears, but forced it down. She wouldn't cry. Not in front of mom.

In spite of her efforts, East Wind seemed to notice... Hurricane saw her golden eyes soften a fraction, and she lowered herself again, resting her chin lightly on top of Hurricane's head for a moment. Then, she leaned in and whispered, "I will always be proud of you, my daughter."

Then, Consul East Wind stood straight again, tall and proud and regal as a Princess herself. "I am ready," she said, and moved into the crowd of IS. Vinculum took up a position next to her, and they left the manor.

They vanished in a flash of lightning.

Author's Note

Bit of a short one compared to the last few. Getting the hardest of the Mane Six's introductions out of the way, I spent way too long thinking on the Pinkie Problem and how to handle her. In any case, she will be forged into a more familiar Pinkie Pie.

I really do promise Fluttershy has a way, way better time. Not all of them are in, uh, tough situations...

Next chapter out soon.

Also, hope you guys like the very brief glimpse at Discord.