“You’re a what?” Applejack asked, raising an eyebrow. She knew she was a reasonably down-to-earth pony who didn’t give much thought to ridiculous things, and what she just heard sounded pretty suspect.
“I’m a space alien!” Pinkie repeated with a huge grin on her face, trotting in place a little in excitement. “I already told Twilight and it went super well so I thought you would be the next best pony to tell.”
“Uh-huh, well that sounds pretty strange, I’m guessing Twilight didn’t believe it?” Applejack muttered, focused on her work of pruning the trees.
They were in the orchard together as it was nearing spring and Applejack wanted to get a head start on controlling her tree's output. Too many branches and the apples would be small and tasteless, too few and there wouldn’t be enough. She wiped the sweat from her brow as she got back to sawing off branches as Pinkie continued.
“Well, I didn’t so much tell her as accidentally show her way more than I wanted to… “ Pinkie sat down watching Applejack as she continued her work. She looked thoughtful as she remembered her past encounter. “She freaked out a lot for a bit and then kinda calmed down. Not that I blame her, I can be really scary if I try, or if something hurts me…”
Applejack paused, frowning as she turned to her, “did you get hurt?” She still didn’t take much of what Pinkie was saying seriously as she suspected this to be some kind of prank, but the idea of Pinkie getting hurt didn’t sit right with her. That bit of information, if strangely out of place, seemed sincere.
Wincing at the memory, Pinkie huffed a bit “Oh yeah, I burnt my hoof suuuper bad, like I could smell it and see it charring and stuff. That hurt more than anything in years.” she absentmindedly rubbed her hoof. “Twilight and I were baking and she tried to help, but she wasn’t really able to do anything to get me unstuck.”
“But your hoof looks fine, if you had burnt yourself that bad there would be scarring. Heck, it would still be raw if this happened a little while ago.” Applejack looked at Pinkie’s hoof, finding it as pristinely pink as her other hooves. “You sure you aren't joking about this? I mean the alien stuff yeah, but your hoof?”
“No, I’m not. I was able to heal myself; I heal pretty quickly. Still hurt a lot though.” Pinkie said quietly, seeming more subdued than normal. She didn’t look Applejack in the eye, staring at her hooves as she spoke instead. Her voice oddly soft and sad.
“Well, I'm glad you didn’t get burnt enough for lasting harm. I'm sorry it happened at all though.” Applejack placed her saw down and walked over to Pinkie, giving her a hug.
“Yeah, me too.” Pinkie whispered, leaning into the embrace “I was going to tell Twilight about the space alien thing anyway, that's why I was there. But I got hurt and got… scary before I could tell her.”
“You're still going with that? I believe you being over there to help with baking, but why add the alien thing? Seems a strange thing to play at, even for you.” Applejack backed up a bit to look her in the eyes. She had been the victim of many a prank in the past from Pinkie and Rainbow, and this insistence on aliens seemed to fit into that all too well.
Pinkie looked conflicted for a moment before finally letting out a heavy sigh paired with a playful smirk. “Yeah yeah you caught me. I’m not really a big evil space alien. But still… if I was, would we still be friends?”
“Of course we would, Pinkie,” said Applejack softly, as she mulled this over some more. Was that what this was really about? She couldn’t even think of a world where she and Pinkie weren’t friends anymore. “Even if we change over the years, we will still be friends Pinkie, you don’t have to worry about that.”
“Well that’s nice to know… sometimes it feels like everything I do is some sort of clown mask put on to hide myself from what other ponies would think. I mean, I do love parties, and making everypony happy but… sometimes I really don’t want to deal with anypony, including me.” She trailed off, her voice softening to a quiet mumble as she spoke. Staring at the ground, she began counting the blades of grass.
“Pinkie, are you happy? I mean really happy. When you’re just with us do you feel like you need to fake?” Asked Applejack gently, knowing she needed to be delicate here. She hated the idea that her friend was hurting and she had been too distracted to see it. Pinkie was a sensitive pony, she knew, more than most. Some ponies didn’t think she was, due to her exuberance and persistence, but Applejack had known Pinkie since she had moved to Ponyville; she had seen her in some of her worst moments.
Pinkie bit her lip and looked off towards the horizon “Not all the time. With you guys I only fake sometimes. Sometimes I let the real Pinkie slip through to see how you will all like her. Sometimes it works… other times it doesn’t.” Pinkie’s eyes began to glisten. She inhaled deeply, preparing herself to keep going. “And I don’t blame you when that happens, because when you do dislike that Pinkie, I hate her. The annoying Pinkie, the disgusting Pinkie, the inconsiderate Pinkie. I’m gross all over. Sometimes I really can’t stand what I do to you guys…”
“Sugercube, we don’t think you’re gross or annoying or any of that. You make mistakes sometimes but you always realize it and try to make it better. You care so much about everypony. You care so much that you’ve forgotten your own birthday for Celestia's sake.” Applejack held Pinkie’s face in her hooves and turned it to look her in the eye. “We love you, me, and all our other friends, please don’t ever doubt that.”
“But you don’t know what or who I really am! The only pony I showed was Twilight and she screamed and tried to run. I am scary and disgusting, I’ve known it for years!” Pinkie retreated from Applejack’s gentle hold and curled up on herself miserably.
“Pinkie, we do know you. You’re one of the most amazing ponies I have had the pleas-”
“I’m not a pony! I am a space alien… just not an evil one, I hope. Look I’ll just show you.” Pinkie leaned down and picked up the pruning saw.
“Pinkie, what are you doing!?” She started to move towards Pinkie to reach the saw before she did something stupid. She was sure this wasn’t a prank anymore, but Pinkie could get foolish ideas in her head sometimes. Not that they didn’t make sense, they did to Pinkie in her own unique logic, but sometimes it led to disaster. She did not want her friend to hurt herself.
Backing away quickly Pinkie drew the blade quickly back and forth across her right front hoof.
Applejack wanted to scream, she was able to reach Pinkie and tried wrenching the saw away from her but Pinkie was stronger than she expected and kept sawing. She could hear bone being ground and blood was pouring out of the wound onto her and all over the grass.
Try as she might she could not overpower Pinkie even with her strength from years on the farm. “Pinkie, stop! Don’t hurt yourself like this! You’re not an alien! Please!” She was truly panicking now. She needed to get her to stop and then get her to a hospital as quickly as she could. How was she still going, how was she not screaming in pain?
Pinkie dropped the saw and stomped on her leg in the break she had made, snapping it off. “Applejack please calm down, I'm fine. This doesn’t even hurt. Just let me show you… trust me okay?” she frowned, quickly grabbing a hold of her severed leg.
Short of breath, Applejack stared at her, not able to believe what she was seeing. “W-we need to get you to a hospital now. I-I need to find a rope or something for a tourniquet,” she rattled off breathlessly, eyes reeling wildly looking for something to constrict blood flow.
Pinkie sighed and held her severed leg up calling out “Applejack, look at it!” The leg had veiny tendrils snaking out of it waving this way and back seeming to be exploring or looking for something. She brought it near her new stump and presented it to Applejack as the two parts' tendrils snaked together, joining and beginning to fuse and seal shut.
Applejack stared, mouth hung open in awe as Pinkie’s hoof slowly grew first bone, then flesh, then skin, and finally pink fur with a little poof of fluff as the leg looked good as new. “What… Pinkie are you okay!? Didn’t that hurt!? Sweet Celestia, Pinkie, why would you do that!?” Applejack felt the vomit crawling up her throat but she choked it back. It would do no good to lose complete control now.
“I’m fine, Applejack, nothing hurts me except hot and cold things… and I did it to prove my point. I am an alien. I don’t even look like this, not really, I look horrifying and scary. When others see me they scream. When I first saw what I really looked like I cried for hours. I felt like I was a faker, a monster, I wanted to run away and never come back, I was scared I would hurt my family!” Pinkie’s volume increased as her speech went on until she was practically screaming as tears flowed out of her eyes. She inhaled slowly and got her voice back under some amount of control. “But since the day that happened I’ve known, I wasn’t right. That I wasn’t a pony, and that I needed to hide what I was or else I would be alone… I thought Twilight would have left me when she found out but she didn’t… Maud didn't either but I’ve always felt like she should have.”
Applejack felt her heart rate slow, she needed to focus, and she needed to be careful with what she said. Because right now her friend felt alone and alienated even with other ponies accepting her. This was an internal issue, an issue that no amount of comforting words could really help. She had to show her.
“Pinkie… I uh, I Believe you now about the alien thing. Why don’t you show me what you really look like okay? Don’t hide anything alright? I promise I won’t run or scream…” She had a plan in mind already, But she needed Pinkie at her ‘worst’ for it to hold any meaning.
Pinkie stiffened and her eyes went wide “I-I don’t think you want that. I don’t think that's a good idea.”
“I know you’re scared, it’s okay though… you can be scared, but please just trust me with this, please.”
Pinkie’s eyes twitched to the side as if searching for an escape, she started to breathe quickly and tremble. She let out a pitiful whine “I really don’t wanna do this. It only happened by accident with Twilight…”
“I know, but she didn’t know what to expect. It was a surprise for her. I’m asking you to show me.” Applejack knew what she had to do to fix this, to help. She just hoped that she wasn’t underestimating anything, her own resolve or Pinkie’s true form.
“Well… if you're really really really sure…” Pinkie curled up on herself and sighed as she tried to collect herself. Her breathing steadied as she decided to go through with it. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
Applejack stopped herself from gasping in horror, though she did wince, as Pinkie’s eyes ruptured as tentacles snaked out from them. Her tongue seemed to elongate and split apart into many different feelers. Her chest split open as her ribcage opened like a maw and her entrails moved freely sloshing on the ground. New eyes started peppering the exposed insides of her open body. The horrendous transformation seemed to stop.
Applejack didn’t like what she was seeing but she could work with this. This was doable, but first… “Pinkie, you're not holding out on me, right? This is everything?” she heard a keening, wailing mew of frustration and reticence.
Pinkie shuddered and then continued the transformation. Her bottom jaw detached and split into two. Then things got stranger. Pinkie started to swell in size as her body lost any familiar anatomy. She became a grotesque giant mass growing in size by the second. Her flesh lost any color or fur and became darkened and covered in viscous liquids. She looked as if she were melting into a large gelatinous form. Endlessly plastic and still solid by constantly shifting and flowing within itself.
Applejack really tried to but she couldn't hold down the bile any longer and wretched as the stench and sounds of what she was witnessing hit her. Her sickness landed on the ground in front of her and she wiped her muzzle clean and spit out the rest of it. Breathing heavily she kept her eyes on the mass in front of her.
“K - keep going sugarcube. I'm alright, it'll be ok.” She felt ashamed of herself for her weakness. Her friend needed her and this was how she reacted?
The mass in front of her for it could not be called a pony anymore was finally the size of a barn. Tentacles flailed every which way, some capped with scythe-like bone protrusions, eyes surfacing blinking, and dissolving rapidly all over. Soft blue bioluminescence peeking through from within occasionally. And the worst part of all was the maws. Hideous black holes filled to bursting with tongues wiggling out and ringed with sharp spikes of teeth. Jaws also ringed, like a parasite not hinged but circular and pulsing open and closed like a leech.
“Please, I don't want to do it anymore! I'm scaring you!” The mass wailed before her, vibrating out wavelength above and below her hearing as well as what she could hear. It was like the voice was emanating from her own bones.
Applejack gritted her teeth so they would stop vibrating from the awful cacophony. “No! Keep going, show me everything, okay? I’m not sca-” Okay that was a lie at this point. She wasn’t scared of Pinkie but there was a primal part of her that was terrified. It told her to run as hard and as far as she had ever done before. To hide away from the monster in front of her. She would die, it would kill her. But she quieted these thoughts and continued “- ok I am scared. But keep going anyways. Trust me!”
The mass took on a new feeling, an aura or atmosphere. The very light in the orchard appeared to dim as if something were blocking it in some way. Applejack’s eyes hurt with the strain at what she now saw. Through Pinkie’s many mouths and eyes, she could see what looked like many colored lights, vast planes of plasma, and light from distant worlds. There was a horrible noise as a weak vacuum started pulling the atmosphere into the holes. The very concept of shape and color seemed to fail her at what she saw through Pinkie. Her eyes hurt and her ears felt an incredible pressure at the unholy noise coming from what was in front of her.
This was it, the peak of this whole problem. Applejack was ashamed to admit that she didn’t know if she could go through with her plan, even touching Pinkie now might cause herself harm for all she knew. And though she did not want to admit it, she could not deny her aversion to this form. But she resolved herself and forced her eyes and ears open and towards the mass in front of her. She slowly walked towards Pinkie.
“What are you doing? Why did you want this? I only ever hurt ponies like this! Even Maud and Twilight” Pinkie’s voice was great and terrible, echoed in light and electrical waveform. It no longer sounded like a pony at all, just sounds, though somehow Applejack still found herself understanding what was being communicated.
Applejack flung herself at Pinkie like a pony trying to hug a giant tree. Her front legs could not hope to even begin wrapping around her, it was like hugging a wall. But nevertheless, she leaned on Pinkie and felt herself sink into her soft mass. She briefly panicked that she may be absorbed but calmed when whatever surface tension or skin held her from falling into Pinkie.
“I’m hugging my friend Pinkie.” She had her eyes squinted but not shut, it helped to take in the new colors coming from one of Pinkie’s nearby mouths. Her head was looking sideways, cheek pressed against the soft flesh of Pinkie.
The mass shuddered then went completely still “I-I-you shouldn’t I'm not good, I'm horrible!”
“And I'm doing it anyways despite all your ‘horridness’. I'm hugging my friend. Your not horrible Pinkie, your my family, one of the most wonderful ponies I know,” whispered Applejack softly. She kept herself from wincing at the cold mucus that was pressed against her. She saw one of the eyes near her leaking… something, definitely not water-based tears but something.
“C-can I hug you?” Pinkie keened and rang the air with the power of her sound.
“Kinda what you do when somepony hugs you, Pinkie”
“O-okay then…”
Applejack shivered slightly as she felt tendrils wrap around her. Behind her head and neck as well as her withers. They tightened slightly pulling her tighter into the huge mass, but not so tight as to cause discomfort, though she definitely felt uncomfortable from the situation as a whole. Those tentacles definitely made her feel… uneasy. They were warm and slick with slime. Her instincts had been screaming at her this entire time that this was a deathly dangerous situation but she shoved them down.
“Do you understand? Even when you look like this I’m here for you. When you’re scared, when the world seems like too much, when you hate yourself, I’ll be here for you for as long as I can be.” She shifted slightly to look into the nearest eye. “I uh, don't really know which eye to look at here so I'm just picking this one okay, so look me in the eye and repeat after me okay? Pinkie Pie is not alone.”
The eye turned to focus on Applejack as the pupil changed into a U shape constricting “P-P-Pinkie P-Pie is n-not alone… thank you… “ the tendrils sneaked around Applejack's neck unconsciously, but did not tighten.”Nopony one ever wanted to be near me if they saw me like this. Even Maud didn’t, she wasn’t scared I don't think, or at least I hope not, but she doesn’t like touching or hugging at the best of times let alone like this… I don't hold it against her though. If it wasn’t for her I would have run off into the Everfree forest when I was a filly to get away from everypony forever.”
She felt herself gulp in nervousness as she felt the tendril encircle her neck but kept her eyes trained on Pinkie’s closest eye “I know your sister wouldn’t want to hurt your feelings… and I'm guessing you never brought it up right?” Looking up close she almost thought the eye itself beautiful in isolation from the rest of the mass. She could see spiral patterns of far-off worlds shining through the dark of the pupil.
“No, I didn’t. I was just happy she didn’t run away from me. I'm adopted of course but she was the only one who knew about all of this before, she even knew before I did. I’ve had accidents before around ponies, but I was usually able to hide the damage, or if something really set me off I was able to get away before I… changed. Even then, sometimes other ponies saw me like this, and they didn’t take it well… they didn’t know it was me so I never had any lasting problems, but I was always worried if someone saw me change they would get the town together to hunt me down or chase me away.”
Applejack moved her hoof slowly in a circle on Pinkie’s side trying to soothe and reassure her “Well, if that ever happens you know me and Twilight will be on your side. We wouldn’t let ‘em hurt you.”
A small sound like cynical laughter cut the air, “They wouldn’t be able to, well not physically at least. I… I could really hurt ponies if I wanted to. They wouldn't be able to stop me… well I guess fire could do something but it would still take a lot. But I don’t want to hurt ponies… not even the meany-mean pantses.”
Applejack gave a small smile “I know you don’t Pinkie, you never wanted to hurt anypony, you’ve always wanted to bring joy to others, it’s one of the most beautiful things about you. And for the record, your eyes are amazing.”
Pinkie giggled as she cried. She released applejack from her embrace and backed away a bit to give her space. “T-thats the only compliment I’ve ever gotten like this heh… I want to change back now though if that's okay. I’m still not really super comfortable being like this, especially around other ponies. Maybe that’ll change later.”
Applejack nodded and tried to wipe some of the slime off her face. She grimaced as a thought came to her, “This stuff ain’t poisonous right?”
“Oh no, you’re fine. I don’t know what it is but it doesn’t seem to hurt ponies. I do cry stuff that smells like cinnamon though!” Pinkie seemed to slowly be getting smaller as she spoke. It looked like the light was bending and curling in on itself, as if space was being curved in strange ways as Pinkie’s mass folded in on itself. A fissure opened up and the front as pony Pinkie was shunted out while the rest of her was compressed and disappeared through her eye sockets until it was just pony Pinkie as her eyes formed again sealing off the strangeness inside herself.
“You uh, you haven’t tried putting it in your baking right?” Applejack asked now concerned that she may have ingested whatever that substance was in a muffin or cupcake at some point.
“No… but that sounds like a great id-”
“Maybe don’t. I don't think ponies would appreciate eating unknown cinnamon-smelling liquids.” Amended Applejack, she would nip this in the bud before it took root.
“Aww ok. Geeze I'm sorry you’re covered in slime. Do you have a hose or something around here, we can get you cleaned off.” Pinkie winced looking at Applejack’s face and front covered in a coat of thick slime.
“Uh yeah, probably a good idea, let’s head back to the barn. There is a hose behind it we can use.”
They proceeded to make their way back toward the barn and farmhouse. On their way there Pinkie cleared her throat and said, “I wanted to say thank you again for uh… all that back there. I really needed a hug but I don’t think I could've asked for one.”
“Aw, it’s nothing Pinkie. I know you needed one. Just remember me and Twilight will be there for you alright?” she saw Pinkie smile tearfully in the corner of her eye but didn’t comment on it.
“Yeah… I still think that when I'm like that I'm ugly… but I guess not ugly enough to drive everypony away.”
Applejack frowned slightly “Hey now, don’t say that, your eyes were mighty beautiful. It looked like the night sky was in them. And besides that, bodies are like jars or pots, Pinkie. They don’t matter that much.”
Pinkie’s brow furrowed in confusion “What do you mean?”
“I mean that a body is just like a vessel or keg, it holds things. In this case, it holds a person. It’s the least important part of you. I know it’s a bit cliche but what’s inside is more important than the vessel. And Pinkie, I said it before but I’ll say it again, you are one of the most wonderful and beautiful ponies- er, creatures I’ve ever met. Call it your soul or spirit or whatever but that part of you? That’s golden.”
Pinkie bit her lip unsure “even when I'm inconsiderate or annoying or stupid?” Pinkie stopped as Applejack hugged her again and whispered into her ear.
“You’re not stupid, Pinkie, and yes sometimes those things happen. But you always realize afterward and make up for it, because you love us, because you don’t want to hurt anyone even unintentionally, because you’re wonderful.” Applejack held her tight and then realized she was still covered in slime “Oh… uh sorry Pinkie”
Pinkie giggled and said “It’s fine, we’ll just both use the hose. It’s not like I'm not used to being covered in slime.”
They eventually reached the barn and washed off the slime and Pinkie decided to stay and help Applejack prune trees for a few hours before heading back to Sugarcube Corner.
But before she left Applejack said “And Pinkie, if you want to tell the rest of our friends, I’ll be there with you alright? Although maybe tell them ahead of time how you're going to prove you’re an alien. That and maybe use a less intense injury? Might go a long way to keeping them from panicking.”
Pinkie gave a small smile and chuckled, sounding guilty “Yeah wasn’t my best idea. I think you’re right. Well if I do tell the others, I will definitely take you and Twilight with me.”
“Alright, well, take care alright.”
“Will do.”
Author's Note
Thanks to Username17 for inspiration and Blue Cultist for editing.
If you have something positive or negative to say, try and be specific if you can. All specified criticism and positivity are extremely helpful. Thanks again