Chapters The return of harmony unseen content
A bubblegum pink earth pony with three balloons for a cutie mark and a darker pink mane and tail with an appearance akin to cotton candy and baby blue eyes stood out like a sore hoof as she bounced along one of the many paths in the canterlot maze while whistling tunelessly. as she turned a corner she found herself in a much wider section of the maze that, oddly engouh, was decorated with a vast array of balloons that resembled smiling faces of various shapes and sizes.
As if happy to see her the ballons laughed cheerfully in an almost eerie manner, but this escaped the notice of the pink mare as she chuckled along with them.
"Whee! This is the greatest balloon garden I've ever seen! It's the first balloon garden I've ever seen, but still!-Wah! " she exclaimed in delight but then fell to the ground, landing in a mud puddle.
She looked down to see one of the balloons had snagged her rear leg and tripped her and all the while the laughter around gained a much cruler tone.
"Hey what gives?" she asked sounding annoyed.
In a yellow-white flash her question was answered as, the reason she was here in the first place, Discord Spirit of chaos and disharmony appeared before her with his mismatched arms folded behind his back and his small yet entirely different wings flapping to keep him aloft.
"What's the matter, Pinkie Pie? I thought you appreciated a good laugh?" he asked.
"It's different. They're laughing at me" she replied looking a bit upset.
"It's hardly different." the dranconequs replied casually as he moved his head behind a ballon, his face becoming visible on the rubbery green surface as it turned to face her "Your friends laugh at you all the time"
"My friends laugh with me, not at me" Pinkie stated
"Oh really?"
In the recesses of Pinkie's mind another pony sat watching the events unfold, like the happier pony outside this onlooker was bright pink, though that was where the similarities ended. within Pinke's subconscious this pony took on a look all her own with a long blood red mane and tail that was as straight as ruler and deep blue eyes as opposed to the element of laughter's cotton candy style mane and light blue eyes. And again in cantraast to the normally happy pony this mare was a unicorn.
"Pinkie! Pinkie Pie don't you dare listen to him!" she yelled out as the world outside spun around her counterpart, dipositing the party pony once more in the mud as Discord laughed at her misfortune.
"Oh what have we here a spy perhaps?" came the voice of the draconequs as he popped into existence, the world outside freezing in motion as if he had hit a universal 'pause' button.
"Au contraire My name is Pinkamena" the unicorn mare introduced herself.
"Not that Pinkamena by any chance?" Discord replied sounding slightly uneasy.
"Pfft no, if you wish to be technical the pink pony that stars in cupcakes is nothing more than a very, very crazy version of Pinkie Pie. It is the fanbase that gave that persona the straight maned and far more darker look of 'Pinkamena'. Quite frankly I don't much like the idea of my little sister parading around turning the villagers into confectionary.."
"Ah excellent! Let's see if I can have some fun then care to join me?" Discord asked and offered a paw.
"No and you are going to pay for hurting Pinkie!" Pinkamena declared and pointed her horn at him.
Discord placed his paw over his heart in mock pain.
"Oh 'Mena you wound me I would never hurt anypony" he replied.
"...Certainement ..." the pink mare deadpanned
Discord didn't look very pleased with the remark, but instantly went back to his playful demeanor.
"Oh you are such a bore you know? I think it's high time you got to experience a litle chaos!" he declared and in a yellow flash both the pony and draconequs vanished.
As I awoke I was assualted by a myriad of colours and unfamiliar shapes. that was not frightenning. No for the fifteen years I have been alive i have grown accustomed from waking up to an abnormal setting, such is the life of a pony with two souls. I was fine with the fact that the surrounding landscape was a feild of paper flowers of all shapes and colours. It was almost normal to look up and se a purple sky and cotton candy clouds and it was almost reassuring to realise that his scene was one giant reference to an Evanescence song.
What frightened me the most that day, what me reeling onto my back hooves and sent my red mane whipping into my face as I frantically looked around in a wild panic, was a sensation I had not been accustomed to. There was sign, no frightened murmour or loud bubbly exclamation that pointed to Pinkie's presence somewhere in our shared mindscape. No laughter flittered across my thoughts in voice too high a pitch to be my own and not even the reassuring weight of my sister's sleping mind could be felt.
For the first time in my life, I was completely alone.
The balloons that surrounded the party loving Pinke Pie continued their mocking laughter, each one morphing into one of her closest friends as they spun around her.
"No! Stop it"
Her request went ignored as the mockery of her element continued
"Stop laughing at me!"
There was no reassurance from her other half, soul crushing silence filed her mind as Discord reappeared once more.
"Oh, poor Pinkie Pie" he said in fake sympathy "And here I thought laughter made you happy"
There was nopony left to object to that statement and Pinkie gave in.
"Happy? I don't think so.." she grumbled her mood turning sour and pushing away the small amount of sadness that had built in that short time.
But as everypony knows, you can't stay mad forever....
TO BE CONTINUED
Pinkamena was awoken from her fear induced fit by something cold, wet and sticky landing on her face. her eyes snapped open and she was presented with Discord dangling an empty bucket idly on one claw. catiously she licked the liquad that dripped off her nose and threw a deadpan look at the chaos god.
"Canterlot cola really?" she said flatly.
"It worked didn't it?" he replied with a smirk.
Unimpressed Pinkamena got up and started walking away from him in the hope of finding ponyville, and more importantly, Pinkie. Her progress was halted when Discord flashed infront of her.
"Now where are you off to hm? Wouldn't want to miss out on our little game now do we?" Discord asked and picked her up by the tail and brought her up to his eye level.
"Game?" she asked.
In response the draconeqqus dropped her unceramoniously. Pinkamena felt weightless as she fell for what seemed like an eternity only the land on cold hard stone seconds later.
"Where am I?" she asked as she pulled herself to her hooves and took the maze of underground tunnels and crazy signs that lay before her.
"This is the game" Discord's voice echoed through the area. "One of these tunnels leads to ponyvile find it and you win, fail and well..you'll be trapped here forever!" He explained gleefully.
As his laughter faded Pinkmena looked over her choices as the music began and took of running.
"Tripping out, spinning around. I'm underground, I fell down" she sang. " Yeah I fell down..."
She took a tunnel to the right just in time to dodge the dragon sized earth worm headed her way. her heart pounded against her rib cage as she saw more freakishly large underground horrors ahead.
"I'm freaking out! Where am I now? Upside down? And I can't stop it now"
She noticed a light down another tunnel and the hope of finding her sister again filled her with confidence.
She gallopped towards it as fast as her hooves could carry her.
"Ooh-Oooh-Ooh oh! I, I, I'll get by! I, I, I'll survive!".
The cave rumbled around her, she slipped but managed to hold her balance and kept runing while avoiding and jumping over falling boulders.
"When the worlds crashing down, When I fall and hit the ground, I will turn myself around. Don't you try to stop me!"
She burst through the tunnel and her eyes went wide as an even large array of caves lay before her.
In a flash of light Discord appeared in a row of theater seats nearby with a bag of popcorn in paw, itent on watching how it played out.
"I'll play the game but I can't stay" she sang and walked towards him "I've got my head on straight And I'm not gonna change, I'm not gonna change".
He merely smirked at her.
"You can't get it my way! no"
And with that she started running once more
"I, I, I'll get by! I, I, I'll survive! When the worlds crashing down, when I fall and hit the ground I will turn myself around Don't you try to stop me! "
"I, I! I won't cry"
At last with all her effort she burst out into the open to find herself standing at the entrance to ponyville. she looked on in bewilderment as the ground was not gras but some from a checkered board game, houses were floating in the air and all other manner of unusual things littered the normally quiet town.
She sank to the ground in a mix of fear and doubt.
"I found myself in wonderland. Get back on my feet again" she sang softly.
"Is this real? Is this pretend?"
"I'll take a stand until the end!"
Just as song reached its climax the music abruptly stopped and Discord flashed into view once more.
"Yes yes that's enough of that" he said in a bored fashion and then turned his attention to Pinkmena.
"Well what do you think? A chaos filled ponyville is so much better don't you agree?" he asked her with a grin.
"Where's Pinkie?" she demanded.
"Is that all you can think about? She's around here somewhere..."
"Tell me!" Pinkamena snapped.
"Why she's at a party of course!" Discord replied slyly and smirked as Pinkamena made a neeline for sugar cube corner.
"The worst party ever" Discord chuckled as soon as the pink mare was out of earshot. "Oh this will be priceless!"
PInkamena made her way towards Sugarcube Corner, the door was wide open and she could hear music coming from within. When she stepped inside, she found a unicron sitting at a table and an earth pony dancing to the music on the record player.
"Hi! I'm Pepperdancer!" said the dark pink pony with a frizzled red mane and tail and two chillie peppers for a cutie mark.
"Over there we have Inkwell and my sister Cupcakes is in the kitchen!" the bubbly mare replied and motioned to the white unicron with a silky black mane and tail, and an inkpot for a cutie mark.
"Hello" inkwell said as she looked up briefly but then returned to the book she was reading.
"HI my name is Pinkamena and I'm looking for my sister-" Pinkamena began but was interupted by Pepperdancer.
"Ooo really? Why not wait here? My sister is just making some cupcakes and I'm sure you're sister will be here eventually!" the daciing mare said.
"I-I don't know perhaps I should look somewhere else..."
"Has a guest arrived?" asked a voice from the kitchen.
"Yes a mare by the name of Pinkamena" Inkwell responded.
"Isn't the great! Discord said we should keep an eye out for her and introduce her to you Cupcakes!" Pepperdancer stated with a giggle.
"I really have to go, my sister is waiting for me.." Pinkamena said and made her way over to the front entrance.
"Oh come on Pinkamena" Cupcakes said as Pinakmena heard the unseen pony walking towards the entrance to the room. "Don't you want to try a cupcake?".
The mare that walked out had a light brown coat and a long mane and tail the colour of pink frosting, her cutie mark was three cupcakes with red icing on them. The ensemble the pony was wearing was a dress that appeared to be made of different patches of cloth, a cape made of all different colours of feathers and a necklace of party poppers, each one was again, a different colour.
Balanced on the mare's back was a tray of cupcakes with red icing.
The lights seemed to dim until they cast an errie shade of yellow over the interior of the bakery, the music playing on the small record player in the corner of the room changed to a haunting, music box style tun and th three ponies began to chant a nursery rhyme.
"There once was a mare as happy as can be, for her special talent was naking you see...And where ever she went she wore a smile... ".
"Please stop" Pinkamena said.
"But that smile became a frown every once in a while. "
"I should go, now if you'll excuse me.." Pinkamena said and made a beeline for the door, only to have Cupcakesblock her way,with the other two mares closing in on her.
"Now the ponies in town thought this was strange, so they sent her to a place meant for the deranged " Cupcakes sang.
"They treated her with shock therapy and pills... " Pepperdancer echoed.
"Until they deemed her no longer ill... " Inkwell finished.
Pinkamena franticaly searched for an exit, dread and fear rising up in her as the twisted song contiued to pour from the mouths of the three mares intent on trapping hr.
"So the mare returned happy once more, but nopony knew of the pain she had to endure. And so she returned to making her sweet treats... "
"But wondered how to make the recipe complete " Cupcakes hissed as her sisters fell silent, allowing the baker a kind of solo performance for the next lines.
"She tried all sorts of things that were sweet and fluffy, from kittens to bunnies and all things cuddly. Whatever she tried just wasn't right. Until she met a filly late one night... "
"No nononononono" Pinkamena said in panic, forced her way past the demonic tio of ponies, raced out of the bakery and out into the streets of ponyville.
She ran as fast as her hooves could carry her, her eyes darted around in a desperate search for Pinkie. In the conrer of her eye she spotted the familiar trio of balloons that was her sister's cutie mark and stopped.
There sitting in the park a picnic blanket with some balloons tied to rocks was a greyscale Pinkie Pie, bawlling her eyes out.
Author's Note
Originally there was going to be a fourth pony called Mystique at Sugarcube Corner but i edited her out opting for just those three. Note the Cupcakes reference and my 'SFW' version of the infamous dress, cape and necklace from that famous gridmark story.
The Pony called cupcakes is my version of a killer pony based on the fans interpretation of 'Pinkamena' I even wrote a poem based on the fanfic Cupcakes which you can find in the poetry folder on my DeviantART gallery (Link on profile).
This is short for reason, next chapter we see how Pinkamena returns colour to Pinkie (another musical number..or two).
Edit: I went over this chapter and thought 'I really need to make it hit home how scared Pinkamena is of the pony portrayed in the fanfic cupcakes' and after working out what Discord will taunt her with when he appears next chapter, I kinda wanted to knock the creepy factor up a bit, so I used a part of my own poem to do so, enjoy.
Pinkamena approached her sister in a mix of caution and worry.
"Soure? " she asked, prompting the crying mare to look up at her.
"G-go away, I hate you" the former element of laughter said inbetween sobs.
"No you don't" Pinkamena said soothingly. "You're just-"
"Yes I do!" Pinkie exclaimed "I hate everything! I hate you, I hate parties, I hate my friends a-and I hate myself!"
Pinkamena was at a loss, her sister was a wreck in front of her and there was nothing she could do.
"Come on Authoress throw me bone, give me something to work with" she muttered as Pinkie continued to cry.
"Oh Pinkamena I had no idea you were secretly a dog" Discord said mockingly as he appeared before the two mares.
"Piss off" she snapped.
"Really now is that anyway to treat your new king?" Discord scoffed. "You should be thanking me, after all, I got you out of that stuffy place you call Pinkie's mind, it must have been so boring in there..."
"Do you even see what you've done?" Pinkamena asked hotly, ignoring the chaos lord's jab."You've turned equestria into a living Tartarus!".
"You know what they say, you can't have too much of a good thing" he replied before lifting her up to his eye level wiuth his tail.
"You're all bark and no bite" Doscord mocked. "You're supposed to be the tough one...And yet all it took was an oddly dressed mare and a peom to send you running. What is it that scares you so much Pinkamena?"
He dropped her and began circle around her in an alomst shark-like fashion.
"Look at your sister dear Pinkamena, she hates you, she wants nothing to do with you" he hissed. "You're so different from everypony that you let wittle Pinkie Pie make friends while you sit in your corner of the universe alone "
"So what? I just want what's best for her, who cares if I don't get a spot in the limelight" Pinkamena replied.
"Oh is that all? Funny, that's not what other ponies think..."
"What are you talking about?" she asked skeptically.
"Oh nothing..." Discord replied causlly with a wave of his claw.
"Tell me!" Pinkamena demanded and Discord smirked as he snapped his fingers.
Voices and sounds filled her ears as Pinakmena listened to countless ponies making fun of her sister behind her back.
"That Pinkie Pie is weird, who in their right mind would eat hot sauce covered cupcakes?"
"That pink mare is irresponsible, did you see the kind of baked goods she gave to nearly half the toen? She even poisoned herself along with them!".
"We're facing a crisis and what does Pinkie Pie do? gather enough instruments for a marching band, what is she, crazy?"
"Did you see how she outright insulted Nightmare Moon? Was she trying to get herself killed?".
"Pinkie has more screws loose than anypony I've ever met!"
"Don't you see? All your efforts are in vain Pinkamena, going in hiding to hide your true nature? Thinking a life helping the mare you call sister will vanquish you're nightmares about what you've seen, what you know?" Discord sneered.
"You don't belong and no matter what you do neither will she!"
"I-I tried so hard, I just wanted her to be happy beciase-because.."
"Because you never will be" Discord finished for her, his eyes beginning to change into a multi-coloured swirling hypnotic pattern as he looked gazes with pnikamena.
"Your selflessness has led you astray, the world's harshness has taken your sister away, so no longer will you play nice, when the world around you bites, fight back with hoof and knife!" Discord said.
"No I-I...." it was obivous Pinakmena was trying to fight his magic, but soon her ears drooped and the colour began to fade from her body.
But just as rapidly as her descent into chaos began, it stopped.
"What?" Discord exclaimed, confused as to how she could fight him off.
"I refuse to turn into the monster the world believes me to be, I am not a murderer, I am not Cupcakes, and I am most certaintly not you!" she spat at him, determination burning in her eyes.
"I am Pinkamena Rosette Pie" she continued. "I may have my own inner demons, who doesn't? But I do not let them rule my life!"
She walked past the spirit of chaos and wrapped her forelegs around her sister in a hug.
"Pinkie you have to fight it, remember how we got our cutie mark?" Pinkamena said locking her gaze onto the snivelling mare as she looked up at her.
"Remember when we threw that party for Granny Pie's one hundreth' birthday? Or the day we moved to Ponyville?"
Dim recongnition sparked to life in Pinkie's eyes, the mare's crying stopped by the flow of memories to accompany Pinkamena's words.
"Remember all the times you got upset and I cheered you up? Or all those nightmares I had which you helped me get over?"
"Uh-huh" Pinkie replied softly.
"What about the time we started that club for ponies that can break the forth wall? We even got the princesses to endorse it!"
Pinkie giggled at her sister's enthusiasm, the colour slowly returning to her.
"That club is still going strong, we meet up every week and talk about how ridiculous the fandom has gotten, remeber that one meeting where Octavia and Vinyl found out about the idea of the bronies shipping them? Or that Princess Celestia discovered her nickname 'Trollestia'?".
"That was hayliarious!" Pinkie exclaimed and burst into a fit of laughter as her colour returned in full.
"It was wasn't it?" Pinakmena replied with a small smile.
"GASP! I just realised something!" Pinkie exclaimed.
"What?"
"It's Discord's first time in Ponyville, do you know what that means?".
"Oh gag!" the draconeqqus in questions stated. "I'm out of here, I've had engough of this sap.."
"But what about you're 'Welcome to Ponyville' party..." Pinkie said sadly, looking up at Discord with wide, sad eyes.
"What?" He replied, dumbfounded.
"Ever since we moved here, we made a new tradition here in Ponyville, eveypony who visits the town for the first time gets a proper welcome party" Pinkamena explained.
"A party for...Me? " Discord asked in confusion.
"Of course silly! Everypony, griffon, dragon and draconequus deserves their own Pinkie Pie style pary!" Pinkie replied cheerfully, streamers flying from her forehooves as she raised them in the air as she said 'party'.
"Nopony has ever done anything like that for me before..." Discord trailed off, unsure of how to react to the situation.
Pinakmena walked up to him and offered a hoof and an encouraging smile.
"Just do what I do mon ami{/i], relax and have fun".
Author's Note
Ok so this went a bit darker than what I was planning, but eh it works i guess.
I was going to have a musical number here, but I felt that it would be kinda tacked on.
You'll noticed I bumped the rating up and removed the romance tag, this is more along the lines of a bidding friendship really...
Next chapter is the aftermath of the party, Pinkamena saying her goodbyes and so on.
EDIT: I think i got all the errors
Please comment.