Sorcery is Companionship: S1

Despair. Darkness. Pinkie felt all of this at once, seeping into her like water into a sponge. It was quick too, the rapid succession of guilt and sadness. Feelings like this usually eluded Pinkie, but now, as she sat in her bed, mulling over the night’s events, she wept.

It was almost one when the group went to the hospital. Applejack was stuck in a bed now, stuck in another coma, this one seemingly worse. She looked so peaceful, Pinkie remembered, except for the giant breathing apparatus keeping her alive. When the doc checked her eyes, she said they were glossy, the outer rims a light emerald green.

The Apples were present too, and that was all. 8 ponies gathered around one who had been everyone’s rock for the last few months. She was always there. A little hot-headed, sure, but she was counted on. And she always pulled through.

In her previous coma, Pinkie couldn’t concentrate on Slim’s party. Her friend was asleep. And now, well, she couldn’t do anything.

Pinkie finally kicked her legs from under her to fall on the bed. It must be for something now. Sadness never reached Pinkie, never.

Her period of laying down was cut short, as Pinkie popped up once again, looking outside the window. Yup, pitch black. The only sound was the wind, howling, or almost crying, weeping. It was sad, it had to be. It struck Pinkie with even more sadness.

Her gaze moved away from the window, and toward her big toy box. She didn’t play with the toys too much, but the Cake twins loved it. She moved here to bring cheer and moved from her family to start a new life. The Cakes took her in. She was forever grateful. She baked, she threw parties, and she played with the twins. Everything to let them know she was grateful. But is it enough?

Pinkie shook her head, whispering, “Thoughts, stupid thoughts, no no no. I help them always. Always!” Pinkie still felt doubt. She was changing. She didn’t know why or how, but she was. She never felt this way. Never. “No siree. Never for good ol’ Pinkie!” Doubt. It was in her voice. And she still didn’t know why.

It was at this moment of self-confusion that Pinkie felt a presence in her room. The smell of popcorn and cotton candy filled the air. Carnival music slowly faded in, nice and soft, not too loud. There were the soft sounds of rides and machines. And of course, there was laughter.

This was sudden, but Pinkie stood stunned for only a minute. She became instantly intrigued. She might be throwing herself a party. She usually does these ahead of time, as to shock herself when it happened. “Well, me, you outdid yourself. I don’t even remember getting music to secretly play, with a laugh track, and get air fresheners on wind blowy thingies to get this smell of deliciousness!!!” Pinkie tapped her chin. “Niiiicceee one, me. Point one, me, zero points, also me.” She giggled at her own jest. Now, time for the surprise.

Her sad feelings melted away in favor of unrealistic perceptions. She ignored the creepy factors because it was better than feeling sad. She always replaced her sad feelings with happy ones, and she would make anything positive to get away from sadness. She didn’t want to remember her guilt and sadness tonight, no, she’ll rather feel happy. She didn’t want to think about how years of pent up feelings and sadness culminated tonight. Tonight when she saw her friend sleeping for an unknown time. Tonight when she might have lost her friend. Tonight when she felt bad, terrible, everything. All of that. Pushed aside. It pushed her over her limit. Make things appear, make things happen. Make them laugh, make them giggle, make them forget. When it goes over the limit, forget. If she let up now, she would never recover. She never wanted to feel sad again. Tonight was terrible. Never again.

So Pinkie created an illusion that everything was normal. Simply a party. She made it too easy.

The sounds of happiness and laughter were still low and soft. She propped herself off her bed and trotted around the room. The smells intensified. It smelled so good. Pinkie jumped up and down with excitement. She was so excited! “This will be the bestest surprise, ever!” Pinkie kept her voice low. Her planned party was enough noise, she didn’t want to wake up all of Ponyville.

Horns and drums were playing a happy and silly little tune, causing Pinkie to move back and forth. “Oh, I’m grooving!” She cheered herself on, squatting down and doing perfect moonwalks, in her own not so humble opinion. She wanted to enjoy this party. It was the best one she ever had. She threw the biggest parties, ones with thousands of attendants. And yet this was her favorite one. The own by herself, alone in her room. Because of the day, it was welcomed. It needed to shield her from the last few hours. It had to. This party needed to. She needed it to.

She jumped up and down once again and hopped over to the door. She would need to be quiet, sure, but might as well celebrate in the main dining room. “Awesome. I’m like, the best!” She squeed in delight. Party, that’s all she needed to do. Shell be so drugged on happiness, she won’t feel anything. Numb.

She bounced to the door, and as she passed the toy box, she shuddered. Something was in there. Waiting. She did not know how she felt it, but she simply did. She stared at it, for who knows how long. She became frightened and wished to check that Gummy was ok, as well as her surrogate family. They had to be o-

BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM BAM

The toy box moved with every pound and scratch. Something was trying to get out, furiously. It had to get out. Pinkie felt her legs collapse underneath her, and she scooted away from the door and box and put her back to her bed rest. The sounds got louder, as well as the music and laughter. Only a higher volume.

Let me out.

The voice seemed to scratch against Pinkie’s brain. It repeated itself.

Let me ou.PLEEeeeeaasee.

It scratched her ears, it scratched her soul. The voice was grating and shacky. It continued, politely asking please after every sentence.

“ALRIGHTALRIGHTALRIGHT!!!” In a surge of emotion, Pinkie lept to the box, opened the hatch, then dove back to her previous position. The door opened, but nothing emerged. Nothing. Pinkie was puzzled. “Who is that? You can come out.” She went to her failsafe. “We’ll have a party! Don’t you hear the music and laughter? We’ll celebrate together!” She smiled as if the unknown creature could see her.

“DID SOMEONE SAY FUN!” A voice that was distorted thundered from the box. A flash of blue, white, red, and brown flew for the box. In front of Pinkie was a small toy. Bobo the Clown.

The fake pony had red circles around the eyes, his face white, with blue diamonds on his cheeks. The plastic smiled moved, causing Pinkie to jerk away from him. His smile immediately turned to a frown.

“Awwwww, you don’t like me.” He kicked at the ground. The plastic toy looked at Pinkie, expecting sympathy. He got what he wished.

Pinkie scooted over the small toy, which could easily fit in her hoof. “No no no! I’m sorry! Just, toys don’t often come to life. Plus, your voice was kinda scary.” She shuddered back. The toy shook his head, now filled with a grin.

“Oh, I can fix that!” He hit two hooves together, and suddenly, he was a real pony, the size of Pinkie Pie. All of his features remained the same, including that wide smile. He giggled in such an exaggerated way that Pinkie fell over herself with laughter. The toy turned on a sad look again. “I can’t do anything about the voice though. Sorry.” He looked down, mock crying.

Pinkie shook her head. “That’s okay, you just caught me off guard. Nobody does that!” She could still smell the carnival, hear the carnival, and practically see the carnival. She had a moment of clarity. “Did you make this party?” His grin spread again

“Yes, I did! Hope you like it!”

“Oh do I do I?” All aspects of previous fear were now gone for utter excitement.

“Well,” life-size Bobo continued, “want to continue?”

Pinkie nodded her head speedily. All she wanted was to have fun. The thought of Applejack and her depressing thoughts were nowhere to be seen. Bobo pointed to the window, and Pinkie hurriedly rushed to the place. Everybody was down on the street, waving, and cheering her name. It was still nighttime, but the ponies could only think about rooting for her. She spotted her friends in the crowd, wide smiles on their faces, cheering her name. And wow, a Pinkie was there too! Applejack was there too, feeling better overnight.

She looked back to see Bobo was gone. She shrugged, and quickly raced down to everypony. She got there and was awarded with cheers from all ponies. They stomped their feet for her, but she didn’t know what the point of the party was.

“Thanks everypony! But why?” Twilight spoke up, grinning from ear to ear.

“Why, you are happy all time. You are the best! You’re never sad. Right?” Pinkies previous thoughts reached her for only half a second. She thought she saw everypony frown for half a second when the thought crossed her head, but when she went back to being joyous, the crowd followed.

“Of course! I can’t be sad!” And she felt a twinge of sadness, and again, she thought she saw the crowd wince. Her happiness returned.

The crowd cheered, and they danced. Ponies showed off their moves in pure ecstasy, excited by this late-night bash outside Surgarcube Corner. She spotted the Cakes, and the twins, dancing with the crowd. Even Trixie was there, showing off her moves. Everypony was so happy. The music intensified, and so did the smells, despite no food being present. Pinkie felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to find its Rainbow Dash.

“Hi Dashie, what’s up!”

Dash was grinning, brimming with excitement. “Well, we got a surprise for you at the treehouse. Come on!” And with that, Rainbow raced off towards the library.

Pinkie followed Rainbow. Her friends cheered her on. “Goodbye everypony! Thanks for the great party!”

“YOUR WELCOME!” They all shouted. With a final wave, Pinkie began to follow Rainbow. She was excited and incredibly naive. She was bouncing without caution, as the houses passed the pink blur. She couldn’t see Dash at this point.

“Classic Dashie. Flying off ahead. I’ll catch up!” Pinkie joked. As she naively bounced, there were giant amusement park rides off in the distance. Pinkie oohed and wowed at the giant structures that seemed to be a million miles away.

She eventually arrived at the treehouse, the lights inside brightening up the night. She stared at the door for a while, a sudden rush of fear running through her body. She did not know the reason, but her Pinkie Sense was going off the rails. She began to step back.

The door flung open, and Bobo the clown was in the doorway. Behind him, Pinkie could see a stage with curtains closed, and one seat in front of it. A show? Pinkie looked curiously at Bobo.

“Pinkie! I’m so glad that you could make it! We’re going to have so much fun!” Bobo was smiling down at Pinkie, and his smile had a hint of madness behind it. Something about this place made Pinkie uneasy. She continued to back away.

“No thanks, Mr. Clown. I think I java to get home to go to bed, it’s late and I need to work tomorrow, so-”

“NONSENSE!” yelled Bobo, who grabbed a refraining Pinkie and led her inside. The inside was lit with lanterns and candles. The girls were nowhere to be seen. Pinkie was scared now. This wasn’t fun. It was fake fun. “Bobo, it’s super scary! Sorry, but I…”

Her voice trailed off as she turned to see nopony. Bobo was gone, the door shut. Pinkie just knew it was locked, and from what she was picking up now, she was afraid of what might happen if she tried to open that door.

Pinkie hated this sudden change. It was happy only a while ago. Now, everything was different. In the blink of the eye. It made her uneasy something can change over such a short time. Gradual change is scary, yes. Such as the changing of trends, the new fashion lines. But the sudden change of plans? That is what’s terrifying. The fact that there is no long story drawn out. No setup, no nothing. The worst fear is the fear that happens without warning, or with all the warning in the world, and you still don’t see it. Pinkie thought she sounded like Twilight, worrying about sudden changes of plans. But instead of laughing, Pinkie grew scared. With nothing else to do, she sat down on the chair.

The curtains opened up to reveal all her friends, beside herself. They were wearing smiles too wide, and Pinkie now felt scared instead of happy.

“Hi Rainbow, how are you today?” asked Twilight in a robotic tone.

“Thanks for asking, Twilight. I’m doing fine! Great! What about the others!”

The others robotically answered together in unison, “We are great too!” Fake laughter came from the 5 ponies, and Pinkie shuffled around in her seat. Her hair was boinging up and down. She knew it wasn’t good, whatever was happening was bad. Very bad. But her fear of what might happen if she tried to escape outweighed her current feelings, so she stayed put She just now realized that the laughing and music faded, and it was silent except for the drone of fake laughter coming from her friends.

She then saw herself walk on the stage. Pinkie 2 was frowning. Pinkie would usually try to cheer her up, but she got terrible feelings about Pinkie 2. She stayed in her seat.

Twilight turned to face the copy. “Oh, hi Pinkie! Are you feeling great today?”

Pinkie 2 grunted, then loudly proclaimed, “No!”

The 5 gasped, shocked at the realization that their friend was sad. Their smiles turned to intense frowns. The 5 looked at each other, and exclaimed, “NOW WERE ALL SAD!”

The five began to fake cry, while Pinkie 2 turned to Pinkie and shrugged with the same frown. Pinkie 2 then surge forward and slit Twilights throat with a hidden knife.

Pinkie usually prided herself on being random, and never one to stop talking. Up until now, she was unable to do this. She felt weighed down by her fear for herself. This was no longer the case, as her friends got hurt. Killed. She rushed forward, able to speak now and no longer fearing for her life, that did not matter now. “WHAT IN THE FRICKING CELESTIA HAY DID YOU DO!?!” As Pinkie surged forward with no fear, her movements were slowed to a stop as she was close to the stage. Her friends continued to fake cry as Pinkie 2 advanced on the remaining five.

Pinkie screamed. “WATCH OUT! BAD PINKIE! GIRLS, PLEASE!!!!!”

Pinkie 2 slashed the knife across Applejack’s stomach. 4 friends.

“STOP! WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS? HELP! GIRLS!”

3 friends.

“STOPPPP! STOP CRYING! I’LL MAKE A PARTY! JUST RUN!!”

2 friends.

“PLEASE, THEYRE ALL I HAVE! I DONT WANT THEM TO DIE! PLEASE!” Her voice was shrill, hysterical. Tears were streaming down her face.

1 friend.

Pinkies voice now resembled only a whisper. “Ple...ase. Don’t take them a...way. I’m sorry your angry. Just leave them alone. Ple...ase.”

No friends.

Pinkie choked on her tears, stuck in a mid-run Pinkie 2 turned to look at Pinkie Pie. She couldn’t breathe. Her friends were gone. And it was her fault. She looked up to see Pinkie 2 right in front of her. Pinkie would have stumbled back if she could move.

Pinkie 2 began to talk in a low and broken voice. “They died. From us. Because we were sad. We were sad and ruined their days. Now they’re dead.”

It was quick, it was informal. It was all Pinkie had to hear. Pinkie 2 spoke again. “Pinkie, we can’t do this ever. We cant do this to them. We love them. We need them. When we feel,” Pinkie 2 pointed at the bloody corpses of her friends, “they get hurt. Don’t you see? We need to hide it down. We can’t let anybody know we feel. Cause we’ll hurt them.”

A sane pony would have said bullshit. That was wrong, untrue. That you couldn’t kill your feelings to not hurt your friends, that friends need to know your feelings. Pinkie just saw her friends get brutally murdered by herself. She wasn’t exactly sane right now.

Plus, to her it made sense. She always kept her feelings hidden, it couldn’t be that much harder to have no feelings besides happiness. She could do it. She had to do it.

“Ok,” Pinkie whispered. Pinkie 2 nodded. She then guided the knife she held into Pinkies hoof and without resistance, guided it into Pinkie 2’s stomach. She smiled as she fell, and Pinkie was now able to move. She fell back, laughing and crying, her psyche broken.

She wanted this dream to end. She did not wanna be here anymore. She wanted to leave. “WHY WON’T IT END?” shouted Pinkie. She turned to go through the door to find Bobo the clown. His smile was hanging slightly off his face, and his throat looked slit, as well as his chest. He looked at his wounds, then at Pinkie. He flashed a wide set of sharp teeth.

“Good girl.”

Pinkie braced herself as he pounced, and she went into black.

____________________________________________________________________________

3 Days Later

Lyra sat on her small couch, glancing at the tv in front of her. Her favorite show, The Ponymooners, was playing. She was observing everything that was happening in the past days. Lyra was sure Twilight would break by now. She needed to wait for that moment. It would be easier to inform her than out of nowhere. When she’s at her most vulnerable, is when she will listen to anything.

“That’s what they did to those poor bastards.” Lyra continued to watch her show. It wouldn’t be long now. Only 3 weeks or so until the Gala. It wouldn’t be that hard.

Lyra let her mind wander to other places She and Bon Bon were going on another date tonight. It would be hard with a maniac Pinkie on the loose. Lyra wasn’t surprised Applejack fought against it, but she knew Pinkie wouldn’t stand a chance. She knew what it was like to have it in her head.

“Oh wait, here’s the best part.” Lyra interrupted herself to watch the part of the show where the stallion would accidentally slam his hand with the hammer. Lyra chuckled, then went back to thinking.

She would talk to Twilight, go on the date with Bon Bon, then basically make sure everything that needed to happen would happen. She told Celestia not to do it, there had to be another way.

“Sorry toots, looks like I was right on this one.” Lyra floated a chip up to her mouth. After chomping down, she got out of her chair and used her magic to make a hologram of Twilights treehouse. The OCD pony herself was there with Spike. Although there wasn’t any audio, Lyra could tell Twilight was about to write to the princess.

“Welp, time for me to calm her down.” And with that, Lyra went on her way to the treehouse.