Fears and Consequences

Pinkie Pie sat in front of the stage, looking forward with a sense of grim determination that had few had ever seen the pink mare exhibit. It had to work; there was no reason that it couldn't. She had been the one to suggest it to Twilight after all. Of course, there was still the matter of whether or not she was even the real Pinkie Pie. She thought that she was because she remembered all of the good times she had with her friends.

Her friends.

They were the one thing that kept her going through all of this. They were the only reason that being surrounded by a dozen or so copies of herself wasn't the greatest thing she could imagine. By all logic it would be a great thing! A dozen Pinkie Pies meant that she could make a dozen times more ponies smile a dozen times more often and a dozen times as wide. It was supposed to be fun and Pinkie Pie was certainly all about fun. It was a big part of the meaning behind her cutie mark. If those Pinkie Pies shared her cutie mark then they shared her love for fun. Right?

No. No, that wasn't what had happened. They hadn't made ponies smile, they had made ponies unhappy and that was the exact opposite of what they were supposed to do. They had done thousands of bits of property damage, they had ruined Rainbow Dash's relaxing time at the lake, Fluttershy's animal picnic, and Applejack's barn raising. All fun things that her friends loved doing and her bad choices had ruined that for them. Those copies of her didn't share her love of making other ponies smile; they just wanted fun for themselves no matter who got hurt in the process.

Pinkie Pie sighed sadly as she listened to the copies, and maybe the original Pinkie Pie too, she wasn't sure, chatter excitedly around her. She didn't pay them any heed, though. Their constant cries of ‘FUN! FUN! FUN! FUN!’ had gotten more than a little annoying by this point.

Thankfully for the pink mare she didn't have to wait too long for the means of their entrapment to appear. One of her friends appeared on the stage! Yes, if anypony could tell who the real Pinkie Pie was, it was her. She was super-duper smart that way, she would get it right.

She started talking about why they were here; how they were going to take a test that wouldn't be fun at all. That gave Pinkie Pie pause. These ponies were all about fun, could they succeed in the challenge? On that train of thought, though, she herself was a big believer in fun so being forced to do something that was decidedly not fun was daunting. What if the test was too hard for her? She suggested that Twilight give them a test hard for a Pinkie to do, but what if she had gone overboard and decided to give them something impossible? Would she be able to succeed and go back to spending time with her friends?

No. She couldn't think like that. She had to do this. If she didn't her friends would be stuck with a fake Pinkie and if they ever found out then they would be very sad. She had to pay attention to Twilight now. She would know what to do. She would find the real Pinkie.

Twilight cleared her throat. "Now, the test before you is a simple one, as simple as they come actually." The purple librarian motioned to Fluttershy who pulled a cord opening up the curtains behind Twilight. Behind the stage was a simple wall lathered with wet purple pain.Twilight pointed to the wall. "Watching paint dry!"

Pinkie Pie gulped and began staring intently at the wall. Yes, this was as simple of a test as they came. She wasn't asking them to do magic or produce Pinkie Sense twitches on command; she simply asked them to watch paint dry. Yes. She could do that for her friends. It would be...it would be simple and the other Pinkies surely wouldn't be able to do it. They didn't have the motivation of friendship to get them through this decidedly not fun task.

The seconds ticked onwards as the paint began to slowly dry on the wall. Not a single Pinkie Pie moved. Each stared at the wall as if cupcakes would materialize out of it if they watched long enough and they could all have a party afterwards. Pinkie had to admit that after staring at the wall for however long they had been there, a party did sound really nice.

Suddenly, the first traces of the outside world began to force its way into Pinkie Pie's brain. Birds were chirping. Some birds were singing a happy song right outside the window. They sounded so happy, so content that it was almost intoxicating. She desperately wished that she could start singing along with them. They didn't have a care in the world.

"Hey look, birds!" said a high-pitched voice. One of the other Pinkie Pies had noticed the birds and was gleefully pointing them out to the others. But Pinkie Pie couldn't think about that right now. She...

Her thought process was cut off by a loud burst of magic from Twilight's horn that whistled through the air and hit the distracted Pinkie Pie. The targeted pink pony let out a cry of what sounded like pain before dissolving into thin air. Or at least, that's what Pinkie thought happened. Twilight had sent that Pinkie back to the Mirror Pool, that much was certain. But the way that that Pinkie cried out made it seem like it hurt her.

No. Focus! Paint drying on walls. Focus on that.

Pinkie Pie took a deep breath to center herself and did her best to push the thought that the process of sending the Pinkies back to the Mirror Pool was painful. Surely Twilight was more compassionate than that. She would know a way to cast the spell that wouldn't hurt its target, just send them back to where they belonged.

The birds chirped again and another Pinkie Pie turned her attention from the painted wall to the birds. Another beam of magic, another Pinkie Pie crying out in shock upon being hit.

No, that wasn't merely ‘shock’. That was undoubtedly pain. That was the sound of a mare whose very being was in the process of getting erased from reality and it sounded like it hurt. A lot. Despite every effort to the contrary, Pinkie Pie's head slowly turned in the direction that the cry had come from. The mare had turned into a beam of light that was flying out the window. The sight caused her breath to catch in her throat and fear took over her body, freezing it in position.

NO! If she didn't get back to the paint then Twilight would see her and send her to the Mirror Pool and she could never see her frie—

"Twilight, we've got another one over here," said the voice of Rainbow Dash behind her. Her head swiveled in the direction of Dash's voice and to her horror she saw the pegasus levitating over her with her hoof pointed directly at her. She snapped her head in Twilight's direction and let out a scream of horror and fear when she saw Twilight's horn lighting up to erase her from existence.

She screamed again and tried to back away. "Twilight it's me!" she cried. "I'm the real Pinkie Pie, I...I PINKIE PROMISE!!"

Rainbow Dash snorted above her. "Yeah right, you all say that."

Pinkie Pie let out a whimper that turned into a full blown scream as the dooming burst of magenta magic rocketed towards her. She continued to back away, hoping that she could dodge it and convince her friends that she was the real Pinkie Pie, but she couldn't. It was as if there were walls on either side of her, trapping her in the path of the spell.

With no way of escaping, the spell slammed directly into Pinkie Pie's left shoulder. The feeling was like fire spreading through her entire body, fire that burned away her very being. She screamed in pain as she blew up like a balloon, the fire continuing to consume her.

"AAAHHHHH!"

Pinkie Pie's eyes snapped open revealing that she had rolled off of her bed during the course of the nightmare. Her left shoulder was in pain. It must have been what hit the ground first when she rolled out of bed. She whimpered and scurried over to a corner of her room where she curled up in a ball and began silently crying. That was her fourth such nightmare in a week and it had only been a week since the Mirror Pool incident. Always it was the same: she would be staring at the paint just like she had in real life and some distraction would get her attention and she would be zapped away from everything. The worst one she could recall was the one where she had been one of two remaining Pinkie Pies and Rainbow Dash called out that somepony was making funny faces. As she was zapped away from being distracted by that, her last sight was her friends smiling and happily hugging the imposter Pinkie Pie.

She continued to cry as she tried in vain to push the nightmares out of her mind. They wouldn't stop replaying in her mind and every night brought a new one. Would they ever stop? Would she have those nightmares forever?

She felt something poke her right foreleg and she violently flinched back but opened her eyes to see Gummy standing in front of her with his usual blank expression but with the faintest traces of concern. She supposed that her scream of terror had woken him up. She fixed her pet alligator with a watery smile. "It's okay, Gummy. I just had another one of those sad nightmares again."

Gummy blinked his left eye, then his right one, and nudged Pinkie's leg with his snout again. Pinkie reached out to him and he waddled into her embrace. She held her pet close and nuzzled the top of his head. Gummy in turn affectionately nipped the tip of her nose, drawing a small giggle from the pink pony.

Suddenly she heard a noise that she hadn't noticed before. Pound and Pumpkin were crying. Great, add two more ponies who she had caused to be sad because of this whole affair. Now Cup and Carrot would have to start their day with crying twins and it was all her fault. The realization brought fresh tears to her eyes.

A knock on her door did little to snap her out of her sorrow, even when Mrs. Cake spoke from the other side. "Pinkie, dearie? Are you okay?"

"I'm…" Her voice cracked and she had to clear her throat. "I'm just super, Mrs. Cake! I just fell out of bed and hurt my shoulder. No need to worry about me, it's just a little bump!"

Even if Pinkie Pie's voice wasn't already perpetually happy, the tone and the tears behind it betrayed her facade. "Pinkie I know that's not what happened. I heard you scream before I heard a thump. What's wrong, dearie? Did you have another nightmare again?"

Pinkie wiped her eyes and slowly got to her hooves. Gummy waddled away back to his shoebox bed allowing Pinkie to walk closer to the door. "Like I said, I just fell out of bed. I'm super sorry that I woke up the twins, Mrs. Cake. I can help you get them to sleep again if you need me to!"

There was silence on the other side of the door for a moment before Mrs. Cake spoke again. "Pinkie, may I come in? I'd like to talk to you if that's okay."

"I'm fine, Mrs. Cake!" Pinkie insisted, backing away from the door. "I told you t-that I just f-fell out of bed and...and..." The tears were coming again and a singular sob escaped her throat. Mrs. Cake surely heard it.

"Pinkie, I'm coming in. You clearly aren't okay and I want to talk to you about it. I'm not upset with you or anything; I just want to make sure you're alright."

"I said I'm fine!" Pinkie shrieked, a little more harshly than she intended. "You don't need to come in; I was just about to go back to bed!"

Mrs. Cake was silent for another moment but didn't speak again. She merely began to push the door open to gain entry into Pinkie's room. With a wail of sorrow the pink mare bolted towards her window and jumped out. Her hooves landed on the shingles of the confectionery and she ran a few steps forward before she bounded off and landed on the solid ground. Her momentum caused her to stumble forward for a moment but she righted herself and began running. She didn't care where she was going, she just had to run.

She ran past Rarity's boutique. "I just had a Pinkie hurricane raging through my shop!"

All her fault.

She ran past the library where the whole town had come to complain to Twilight that her clones had been wreaking havoc. "They trashed our critter picnic!" Fluttershy had said.

All her fault.

In the distance was the local farm, Sweet Apple Acres. "Ah wanna know right now where all you Pinkies came from so Ah can find out who's responsible for y'all ruinin' our barn raisin'!"

All her fault.

She had wanted to make more of herself so those events could be more fun with her involvement; not to ruin them with the erratic behavior of her clones.

As she ran through the town, the first rays of sunlight began creeping up over the horizon illuminating her path. Pinkie Pie continued running until she felt the peculiar feeling of water splashing around her. She looked around and found herself in the lake where Rainbow Dash had been relaxing before the herd of Pinkies had come by. "No more Pinkies! I can't take it!"

Pinkie Pie sighed sadly and trotted out of the water. For whatever reason Rainbow Dash's lawn chair was still by the lake, overturned and forgotten. She walked up to it and put it upright so it wasn't such a reminder of what she had done.

She sniffled a little and turned around to face the tranquil lake. Under normal circumstances she would have loved to see a sight like this. It was so calm and peaceful. Not many ponies knew that about her; that she loved to have a few moments every now and again where she could be alone with her thoughts. This lake had always been a favorite spot of hers for that very reason. Now it was just a reminder of how she had almost ruined everything forever.

She sat on her haunches and tried to wipe away more oncoming tears. "I'm sorry everypony," she whimpered. "I didn't mean to make you sad. I just wanted to make you smile."

"What are you sorry about?" asked a familiar voice behind her. She wheeled around to see Rainbow Dash land next to her with a welcoming smile on her face, a smile that quickly faded when she saw the tears in Pinkie's eyes. "Are you okay?"

Somehow, the question combined with Mrs. Cake's attempts to talk to her and last night's nightmare proved to be too much for her. She threw her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's shoulders and sobbed into her friend's chest. It wasn't the kind of crying that brought forth gallons of tears as was usual for her. This was a much deeper sorrow. The tears flowed hard and fast from her eyes and her body convulsed with sobs. "I’m sorry Dashie," she whimpered. "I'm so, so sorry."

Her pegasus friend was silent for a moment before she wrapped her forelegs around Pinkie's shoulders comfortingly. "Is this about the Mirror Pool last week? If so, don't sweat it, we all forgave you for that. It was just a mistake, we all make them."

Pinkie raised her head and looked at Rainbow Dash with wide, watery eyes. "But my mistake was the worst one I've ever made! I almost ruined everypony's lives, including mine! I still have nightmares about what would have happened if I hadn't kept watching that paint!"

Rainbow Dash frowned. "You actually have nightmares about that?"

"Yes!" wailed Pinkie Pie. "I just had one last night. I lost my concentration when one of the other Pinkies got zapped back to the pool and you noticed and pointed me out to Twilight and she hit me with her magic. It hurt so much!"

"H-Hurt?"

Pinkie Pie nodded. "Yeah, it really, really hurt. What's worse was the fact that I heard the other Pinkies who got zapped crying out in pain so it didn't just hurt me, it hurt all of them!"

Rainbow Dash was quiet as she mulled over Pinkie's words. She hugged Pinkie Pie tight and let the mare continue to cry. She sat on her haunches and began stroking Pinkie's bouncy mane comfortingly.

Finally Pinkie Pie managed to collect herself enough to talk again. "Dashie, I wasn't paying attention so I don't know, but when Twilight zapped the other clones back to the pool, did it look like it hurt them?"

"No, Pinkie Pie," said Rainbow Dash quickly. "No, it didn't look like it hurt them at all and they certainly didn't cry out in pain. I don't think they felt anything to be honest."

"I guess that's good," Pinkie muttered. She sniffled and wiped her eyes again. "Dashie?"

"Yeah?"

Pinkie cleared her throat. "I was thinking about something, something that really scared me back when all of the clones went back to the pool."

"What's that?" asked Rainbow.

"You know how those clones were bouncing around and saying 'fun' all the time and generally being a bother... is that who I am? I mean, they were clones of me so is that really what I'm like?"

Rainbow Dash vigorously shook her head. "No, Pinkie Pie. That isn't you. Sure you like a good party but who doesn't? You like having fun but there is a lot more to you than that. You don't like having fun for the sake of fun like those other Pinkies did; you wanted to have fun so that you can make other ponies smile which is a lot more than I can say for the other ones."

"But—"

"That isn't you," Rainbow Dash insisted. "You're not nearly as selfish as they were. They only cared about having fun for themselves, not for other ponies."

Pinkie Pie nodded glumly. "I guess so." She sighed again. "I dunno… I guess it's just that I saw them and they kept bouncing around and saying fun and not being very nice at all and...and I wondered if that's who I really was. I've always wanted to meet myself just so I could see me how others saw me. When I finally could with the help of the Mirror Pool, I didn't like what I saw at all."

"And neither did we, but we love the real you," said Rainbow Dash. "You are not the kind of pony who would put her needs above the needs of others, especially if it made them unhappy."

"But then why didn't you see that the one who was sad was the real me?" asked Pinkie Pie. "All of those other Pinkies were acting like you just said, but you still thought that one of those selfish and annoying ponies could be me! Why?"

"Uh well..." Rainbow Dash nervously scratched the back of her head. "I...I don't know, Pinkie," she admitted. "I guess it just goes back to how we all make mistakes."

"But we've known each other for years and you just said that you know that I'm not that shallow and you don't think that I'm that annoying!"

"Well, I guess it's because all of you said you were the real one. It was hard to know who to believe."

Pinkie nodded glumly and looked down at the ground. "I guess so…" she muttered.

The two sat in silence for a few more minutes before another thought that had been bugging Pinkie surfaced. "Dashie?"

"Yeah?"

"My clones, the ones that got sent back to the pool, what do you think is happening to them?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "I don't know what's happening to them, but I don't want you thinking about that. Don't torture yourself thinking about that all the time. Nothing can be gained from it."

"But what if they're suffering in the pool?" asked Pinkie. "It'd be all my fault!"

"Pinkie, don't think like that!" said Rainbow Dash sharply. "If the spell didn't hurt them then I don't think being in the pool does either. Besides, unless you know for sure what's going on with them, it isn't the smartest idea to lose sleep over it."

"Maybe," said Pinkie. She pulled away from Rainbow Dash and looked out into the water. The way the sun hit it almost reminded her of the Mirror Pool that had started this whole mess in the first place. "It might have been me in there with them and a clone with you guys."

"But it wasn't," said Rainbow Dash, throwing a hoof over Pinkie Pie's shoulder. "You can't play the 'what if…?' game about this, Pinkie. There have been tons of times where I've been flying and I’ve almost crashed in a way that I would’ve been seriously hurt or even crippled, but I managed to pull up at the last second. I try not to imagine 'what if I had crashed?' because it's not worth losing sleep over. I learn and do better next time so I can avoid doing stuff like that."

"But my mistake in this instance almost erased me from existence," said Pinkie sadly. "Wouldn't you say that's worse than being crippled?"

"Pinkie, I'm gonna say it again, don't play the 'what if…?' game. Yes, you could have had that happen to you and we would have been really sad once we realized our mistake but that's not. What. Happened." Rainbow Dash looked into the air thoughtfully. "What was it that Twilight said that one time...?" Rainbow frowned as she tried to recall the specific memory. "’You can't change the past but you can learn from it to do better next time’ or something like that."

Pinkie Pie managed a small smile at that. "I think it went something like that," she said.

Rainbow Dash cocked her head. "Huh, I think I'm beginning to see Pinkie Pie now."

Now it was Pinkie's turn to cock her head. "What do you mean? We've been talking for a while now."

Rainbow Dash shook her head. "No, I think I just saw the real Pinkie Pie just now. There was a smile for a moment there and I saw her."

Despite herself, Pinkie Pie managed a small smile once again much to Rainbow Dash's delight. "Yeah, there she is! That's the Pinkie Pie I know!"

Pinkie Pie giggled and good naturedly pushed her friend. "I've always been here, silly!" she said.

"I know that!" said Rainbow. "You just needed to smile so I could see you, that's all. ’Cause the Pinkie Pie that I know would smile through a time like this. She wouldn't let her mistakes get her down, no matter how bad they were."

"She'd learn from them and try to forgive herself…" Pinkie Pie mumbled.

Rainbow Dash swiveled an ear in Pinkie's direction. "Sorry, didn't catch that which is too bad because it sounded awesome."

Pinkie's grin widened a little. "She'd learn from her mistakes and try to forgive herself."

"There we go," said Rainbow Dash, copying Pinkie's now trademark smile. "It may take a little while for the wounds to heal, Pinks; but I know you're gonna be alright."

Pinkie Pie giggled again. "I know I will." She threw her forelegs around Rainbow Dash's shoulders again. "I've got friends like you to help me."

"I'd never leave you hangin'," said the pegasus.

Pinkie Pie broke away from the hug and wiped tears of happiness from her face. "When did you get so good at smarty-pants motivational talks?" she asked.

Rainbow Dash smirked and shrugged. "I guess Twilight's egghead friendship reports are rubbing off on me a little bit," she said. "Besides, there's actually some good stuff in a few of them."

"I guess there is," said Pinkie Pie.

The pink mare took a deep breath and managed to push herself to her hooves. "You wanna get some breakfast? My stomach is growling a lot now that I'm not so sad."

Rainbow Dash got to her hooves and nodded. "Anytime, Pinks. Where to?"

Pinkie looked in the direction of Sugarcube Corner. "I think Sugarcube Corner," she said. "I have some worried Cakes to talk to I think. I kinda scared Mrs. Cake this morning when I jumped out the window."

Rainbow Dash raised an eyebrow as the two got moving. "You jumped out your bedroom window?"

Pinkie flattened her ears and looked a little embarrassed. "Yeah… I kinda freaked out a little when she wanted to talk to me this morning about my nightmares."

"Well then, to Sugarcube Corner we go," said Rainbow Dash.

Pinkie Pie trotted alongside her friend for a moment, but stopped suddenly to wrap the pegasus in another hug. "Dashie?"

"Yeah?"

"Thanks."

Rainbow Dash's smile returned. "No problem, Pinkie. I'd never leave my friends hangin'."