This Art Has Been In My Family For Generations

The unicorn pair were invited up into Pinkie’s room, the pink mare herself vibrating to a concerning hum and grinning brightly. “Rarity, I know you hoped for something a little more normal, but I don’t think we really should’ve expected this from Pinkie.”

“Hope dies last, dearest,” Rarity sighed. “Well? What is it, Pinkie? What’s your family tradition?”

“I’m a Gummy pony!”

She was greeted with two blank stares. “Like, bubblegum?” Twilight ventured.

“No, silly.” Pinkie reached ... somewhere, and pulled out her pet alligator. “Gummy!”

Rarity’s eye twitched slightly.

Twilight leaned forwards and tried squinting at her hooves. “Are you ... hiding some sort of reptile ancestry?”

Pinkie scratched her chin. “Hmm. Maybe! If you go back far enough we all have a common ancestor, y’know.”

The mares stared at each other, two in somewhat confused silence.

“So ... is that it?” Rarity asked.

Pinkie squeezed Gummy slightly, and to the two unicorns’ surprised, fangs popped out of the alligator’s mouth. “Gummy is the Pie family’s totem animal!”

“Sweet Celestia, what—?”

“And after he bit me, it let me do this,” Pinkie said cheerfully, reaching a hoof into the side of her mouth. Then, she pulled. To Twilight’s horrified fascination, and Rarity’s mild nausea, Pinkie’s cheek stretched several hoof-widths wide.

“Waaay back when Pinkie was a little filly, my Granny Pie showed up at the farm after I got my cutie mark to show Gummy to me. Granny Pie was a party pony herself, the art skipped my Mom, you see. Gummy is only passed from Party Pie to Party Pie, and when I learned about that, I exploded, twice!

“Turns out, I needed Gummy to bite me to pass on the boon, now I keep him around to keep him safe, and he’s a great listener! He also taught me what new fun things I can do. Mainly, it lets me become stretchy! I can stretch my leg like thisssss. I can stretch my head like thisssss. I can inflate myself like a balloon if I do this. inhale, blows into hoof “Woowee, that always makes me a bit dizzy.

“The most important advice Gummy told me was to think creatively! ‘There are no bad Gummy ponies, just uncreative ones,’ he said. So I’m going to be the most creative pony there is! I just have to think about balloons. I can stretch, inflate, twist, bounce, float, fly, twirl, explode, spin, shrink....”

Pinkie smiled as she finished her explanation. Rarity was a bit green around her cheeks. “Here, try it out!” the pink mare offered. Twilight took Pinkie’s offered hoof, and pulled. And pulled. And pulled until she stretched across the entire room. “How … I mean, does this feel strange?”

“I dunno! I’ve been like this for over a decade, so it’s kinda hard to tell what’s normal. This probably isn’t though.” Pinkie proceeded to tie her forearm into a balloon dog. Rarity started to look a little faint.

“I guess that’s how you made yourself so buoyant?” Twilight ventured.

“Yeah!” Pinkie agreed. “I could just breathe in helium, but that makes my voice all funny! Great for party tricks, not that great for long conversations without passing out. Nah, for that I blow it straight into my bones.”

Now Twilight had to blink a few times. “...Bones?”

“You gotta express confidence, y’know?” Pinkie waved her balloon dog arm. “I think of myself as a balloon, and so can treat myself like a balloon. It doesn’t work if you think too hard about it.”

Twilight gulped. She looked somewhat pained, but forced herself to ask, “... Is Pinkie sense related?”

Pinkie blew into her hoof, somehow producing a downwards pointing nub on the end. “Nope!”

Twilight stuck her face into her hooves and groaned.