It seemed as though a certain electricity was in the air. Everyone could sense it, though no one really had an explanation as to what was causing it. It certainly wasn’t because of an electric storm, and no eels were being thrown around above the ponies’ heads. So what was it?
In spite of this aberration in the air, the ponies went about their regular business. Lyra sat in the Cake family’s
bakery, sharing a peach cobbler cake with Bon Bon. It had been made especially for them; it wasn’t even on the menu yet. They were waiting for Lyra and Bon Bon’s approval- which after only one taste, they’d wholeheartedly given- for the item to be sold to the public.
The other ponies were busy as well. Fluttershy was taking some flying lessons from Rainbow Dash, as was Scootaloo; the two made good partners, seeing as neither of them were as good of flyers as Rainbow Dash was. Thus, each of them had equal amounts to learn. Rarity was in her shop, hard at work on some new dress idea. And Applejack was off at her farm, tending to the apple crops.
That just left Pinkie Pie, who was at that moment bouncing happily towards Ponyville’s center city square. She was alone, though that wouldn’t be the case for long; she had plans to meet up with Rarity for lunch. She had no idea that Rarity was still hard at work at her shop, though, so she just kept on bouncing happily down the road.
When she got to the town square, she smelled something delicious coming from the Cake’s bakery.
“Ooh what’s this?” she said animatedly. “Could it be… cherries? My favorite!” She headed in the direction of the bakery, but only made it a few steps before another voice could be heard behind her: “Hey, Pinkie Pie!”
Pinkie turned. “Oh! Hi, Twilight! Whatcha doin’?”
Twilight had a big smile on her face, and oddly so did Spike, who was riding on her back. “I just invented something new. You wanna come see it?”
“Sure!” Pinkie exclaimed, then stopped. “Um, what did you make, exactly?”
Twilight grinned ecstatically. “It’s something that you’d never dream of in your wildest dreams, Pinkie. It’s that cool.”
Pinkie looked at Twilight funny. “I don’t know, Twilight… I have some pretty crazy dreams. Like this one where I was baking a batch of cupcakes, and-“
“No time!” Twilight cut her off. “Do you want to come see this or not?” Pinkie, if she would be honest with herself, was getting more and more curious by the moment, so she finally relented and headed off with Twilight.
When they got back to her house, they headed down into her basement. Pinkie ooh-ed and aah-ed the whole way down. “I’ve only been down here once, I think… When you had me hooked up to that really weird machine.”
Twilight chuckled. “Yep, that was a trip alright. But this thing is going to make even that machine look positively childish.”
“No way…” Pinkie replied. “I can’t see that ever-“
Suddenly, she cut herself off. There, in front of her, resting on the fireplace mantel, was a flat box that had some sort of film covering the front of it. It was, frankly, the most beautiful thing that Pinkie had ever seen.
“What…?” she asked, starstruck. “What is it?”
Twilight was obviously pleased at Pinkie’s reaction. “I call it… a television. See, I got this in the mail the other day-“ She held up a plastic case that was open to reveal several discs- “and I had no idea how to make them work. When I asked Lyra, she said that I needed something called a television. Well, I had no idea what that was, so I decided to make one myself to see if it would work.”
“Ooh!” was all Pinkie responded with. “So does it work?”
“I don’t know yet,” Twilight replied, walking over to the television. “I’ve been trying to get everyone to come out here and check it out, but everyone’s busy doing their own thing. You’re the only one who actually agreed to come out here and do this.”
“Wow…” Pinkie wondered out loud, “Why wouldn’t anyone want to come out and see something so awesome?”
“You’re asking the wrong mare,” replied Twilight. She handed a disc to Spike, who hopped up to the TV and pressed a button. A panel slid out, and Spike put the disc on the panel before closing it again.
“So… we watch things on this?” Pinkie asked. “Okie-dokie, then! What are we watching?”
“It’s called The Powerpuff Girls. Like I said, I had it sent to me by a friend.” She turned the TV on, and Spike pushed over a couch for the three of them. They all sat down and started watching.
For the next few hours, they were mesmerized by the tales of three young girls, created from a mixture of the most pure and innocent ingredients you can find, with a dash of radioactive material accidentally spilled in, as well. When they’d almost gotten through the first two discs, Twilight stretched and groaned. “Okay, only one more episode, then we’ll take a break.”
So, they continued. About halfway through the episode, one of the characters, Bubbles, had on a pair of insect antennae- fake, of course- and she was looking cross-eyed at someone off-camera. Pinkie laughed. “Who does that look like to you? Doesn’t that look like Ditzy Doo?”
Twilight laughed as well. It kind of did remind her of the grey pony that everyone seemed to-
Suddenly, she stood up. “Oh my… I can’t believe I never made the connection!” She ran off, heading upstairs, leaving Pinkie and Spike with the TV.
“Where are you going?” Pinkie called after her. “The episode isn’t over yet!”
A few minutes later, she had managed to wrangle up Lyra and Derpy, and they were all three seated in the Cake’s shop.
“What’s this all about, Twilight?” Derpy asked inquisitively.
Twilight chuckled. “Okay, so here’s the deal. Derpy, I’m pretty sure I’ve found your sister.”
“Found her?” Derpy’s tone was worried now. “What happened to Dinky Doo to make her get lost?”
“Oh no, not Dinky. She’s fine. I’m talking about her.” She slid a picture of Bubbles over to Derpy, who looked at it cross-eyed like usual. Lyra’s face lit up like a Ponymas tree.
“Wait, so you believe me now? Humans do exist?” Twilight’s silence was interpreted as an agreement, and Lyra began jumping for joy.
Derpy pushed the paper back towards Twilight. “What are you talking about, Twilight? We’re not even of the same species.”
“But her name is Bubbles, and well… your cutie mark is a line of bubbles, and she does look kind of… well, derpy in the picture, so I just figured…”
Derpy laughed. “Oh you, Twilight… I have bubbles for my cutie mark because of my bubbly personality. It has nothing to do with any kind of connection that I have between myself and some person who happens to have the same name as my cutie mark.” She smiled her own unique smile. “Besides, who names their kid Bubbles? That’s just weird.” She waved to the Cake family, then flew away.
Twilight was stumped. She was so sure that was the reason behind Derpy’s cutie mark. Dejected, she got up and left, Lyra still at the table in shock.
As Derpy was flying through the air, she got a call on her cell phone. She pressed the button to answer the call. It was really awesome of Twilight to make this for her, so she could keep in touch with everyone on a daily basis. Her status as official mailmare allowed her to know, probably better than anyone else- that regular mail was a lot slower than just making a simple phone call.
“Hi, Bubbles!” she said animatedly. “You’ll never guess who finally made the connection…”
