Something's not quite right.

"Well ?" A now infuriated Pinkamena asked the confused ponies before her.

"Just who are you ponies ?" She asked.

"Pinkie, we're your friends, remember ?" A completely dumbfounded Twilight asked, suspicious as to why one of her best friends was acting so strange.

The pink mare just scoffed. "Unlikely, I think I'd know what my friends looked like when I saw them." She replied in a rather sarcastic manner. "Well, the ones you have anyway." A little voice in the back of her head pointed out.

"Wait. So you're saying you have no idea who we are whatsoever ?" Twilight continued to ask, beginning to wonder whether Pinkie was suffering so some sort of mental sickness.

Scanning the crowd, Twilight spotted an aquamarine coloured mare, sitting in a rather unusual fashion on a nearby bench.

"Well, do you know who that is ?" She asked, raising a foreleg in the mare's direction.

Rolling her eyes, Pinkamena decided to play the unicorn's game and glance in the direction the lavender mare had indicated.

"Of coarse I do." She began. "That's Lyra Heartstrings. What other pony do you know who sits like that ?" She pointed out. At this point the former party pony may even have cracked a small gin at the sight of the unicorn on the bench, but given the current circumstances she was in absolutely no mood for such a thing.

Surprised that Pinkie was so quick to recognise Lyra caused Twilight to reconsider her theory. "Well, it's probably not total amnesia. Better make sure though." She thought to herself, mentally jotting down the observation.

Continuing to observe the market, Twilight spotted the next pony she would have Pinkie attempt to remember.

Spotting a grey coated, cross-eyed pegasus flying past, she quickly held up a hoof in the mare's direction and asked.

"And who's that ?" She asked the frowning pony before her.

A hint of frustration creeping back into her tone, Pinkamena did her best to keep it to a minimum and looked upwards in the direction the unicorn had pointed, rolling her eyes once again at what she found the mare to be pointing towards.

"Who else flies that clumsily ?"   She asked herself rhetorically as she watch the grey mare bump into a street sign which was blatantly obvious and then fly through several clouds as though that was the normal thing to do. That particular mare always found a way to get on her nerves somehow.

"Ditzy." Was the only response she gave, eager to be rid of these bothersome ponies and to be on her way.

"Can I go now ?" She asked impatiently.

"Well, it's definitely not total amnesia." Twilight thought.

"Hold on, one more question." Twilight replied, trying not to let the pink pony wander away.

"Can you tell me who that is ?" She asked with a worried expression, dreading what Pinkie's response would be as she spotted and pointed towards a rather tired looking Rarity emerge from the Carousel Boutique, apparently having just woken up.

Giving an exhausted sounding sigh, Pinkamena turned once again in the direction the unicorn pointed, silently deciding that this was the last round of their little 'guessing game' she would play.

Spotting the pony in question, Pinkamena frowned, not in frustration or annoyance, but out of confusion. Cocking her head slightly, she looked the snow white mare over for several moments before giving her answer.

"I haven't the slightest." She said flatly, her facial expression returning to neutral.

And with that final sentence she turned away from the three shocked looking mares and began to trot away at her usual pace.

Although they called out to her and told her to wait up, she made no attempt to heed their calls and continued on her way as though she hadn't heard. Sighing with relief that she was finally free of those three.

"Told you something was up." Rainbow said, pointing out the obvious as they watched the pink pony trot away from them.

"Well, you're the egghead Twi. Surely you've got some idea why she's acting like that." The rainbow pegasus asked with a hopeful expression.

"Honestly.. I have no idea." Twilight responded honestly. "I haven't read anything like this in any of my books." She added. "Then again, I haven't read that many books on pony psychology and mental illnesses." She pointed out.

"Come to think of it, I may go do that right now." She said after a moments pause. "Surely there has to be some explanation." She half muttered to herself.

Realising that Pinkie hadn't seen Fluttershy gave Twilight a small flicker of hope. "Rainbow. Can you go find Fluttershy for me and bring her to my library." She asked the cyan pegasus, hopeful that Pinkie would at least remember her. "And Applejack. Can you do the same with Rarity. I think having all of us around her might jog her memory, she explained to her still confused looking friends.

"Well, uh, sure Twi. If you think it'll help." Rainbow replied, taking off in the direction of Fluttershy's cottage, leaving a rainbow coloured trail behind her as she always did.

"Ah sure can sugercube." Applejack said, still looking worried as she trotted off towards the Boutique, as Rarity had gone back inside, presumably because she though it was 'Simply far too early to be up' as she would put it.

Nodding with satisfaction, Twilight turned and began her journey back towards her library, her mind racing with possible explanations for Pinkie's behaviour.

Her thoughts simply too scrambled to do anything other than think, Twilight found her legs on auto-pilot throughout her journey to her library. A confused expression plastered on her features the entire way, Twilight had only made it roughly half-way to her home before her gaze caught something rather strange trotting not too far ahead of her.

Before her trotted a familiar pink pony surrounded by several blurs bouncing around her form.

Twilight instantly recognised them as Applebloom, Sweetiebell and Scootaloo, better know around Ponyville as the cutie-mark crusaders, with each filly adorned with their trademark red cape.

Approaching the four ponies at a quickened pace in order to catch up, Twilight began to catch onto some of their conversation.

"Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie, Pinkie !"  All three of the fillies were shouting at the pink mare as they followed her.

Fed up with asking ponies to stop calling her that, Pinkamena just kept her gaze forwards and replied, "What ?" Through firmly gritted teeth. She was in no mood for further questioning after her encounter with those other three ponies, but she was being questioned by fillies now, and not even she would openly tell a filly to 'Get lost.'

"Where'd your cutie-mark go ?" Scootaloo piped up before the rest could question the mare.

"Wait. Where'd your cutie-mark go ?" Twilight asked herself, puzzled at the fillie's question.

It was then she noticed that Pinkie's flank was indeed blank. The usual cluster of blue and yellow balloons was replaced by plain pink fur. "How did I not notice that ?" Twilight scorned herself, adding the unusual observation to her mental list, remembering that there had only been several cases of cutie-mark loss in all of Equestria's recorded history.

"I haven't gotten mine yet." Came Pinkamena's blunt reply, obviously not wanting to talk to anypony at this particular point.

"Sure ya got it." Applebloom piped up. "Ya even told us the story on how ya got it." She added, remembering Pinkie's tale on how Rainbow's sonic-rainboom had given Pinkie her first smile.

"Do you see a cutie-mark ?" Pinkamena asked rhetorically, a slight hint of annoyance in her tone.

"Well, no." Sweetiebell answered as the fillies eyed Pinkie's bare flank.

"But you did have one, remember ? It was three balloons cause' you like parties so much." She added, grinning at the frowning mare, who still refused to look anywhere but where she was going.

"Parties ?" The pink mare muttered quizzingly.

"I haven't been to a party in my life." She replied. "How could my cutie-mark possibly be for 'parties' ?" She asked, still puzzled that the fillies would suggest such a thing.

Shocked to hear her say this, the crusaders grins quickly disappeared as they took in what Pinkie had said.

"Uh. Well yeah, Pinkie. It's been great talking to you, but we have alot of crusading to do." Scootaloo said as she began to forcefully push the others back the way they had come.

"Really ? Ah thought we were done crusadin'......" Applebloom began before being cut off by Scootaloo's hoof over her mouth.

"Don't say anything, just go." Scootaloo instructed as she continued to push them back down the path right past Twilight, with Applebloom and Sweetiebell giving her looks of concern and Scootaloo pointing to Pinkie and then making several gestures implying that she was crazy.

Twilight just shook her head as the crusaders continued on their way.

"Alright. Time to find out what the hay is going on." Twilight thought to herself as she increased her pace and came up beside the now relieved looking Pinkie Pie.

Glancing beside her, Pinkamena realised she was now walking with the same lavender unicorn as before.

Letting out a long, drawn out sigh, she stopped and turned to face the mare with an annoyed frown firmly etched into her features.

"Alright. I've had enough of this." She announced. "What exactly do you ponies want from me ?" She asked, expecting a very good reason as to why the unicorn had followed her.

This chapter is fairly short because I've come to a point where I can make the story go in several directions and I'm yet to decide which one is best. One of the options being where Pinkamena finally snaps and goes all sadistic killer again. But that's been done, so I think I'm going to try and do something different.