Bab 60: Three Ponies are too much for a single mind...even if it's Pinkie's...
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An early chapter cus I felt like it!
Hope you like what I did in this chapter. It was pretty hard to make it mysterious enough that it ended up still being readable and contained all that I wanted to convey with it, but I hope you can all figure it out...
Well... Anyway, again hope you like it and like always... ENJOY!!!
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"Wha-What do you mean?..." Asked Starfall after calming himself, seeing that the apparition of Pinkamena didn't seem to have any bad intentions.
The Pink pony turned her head towards the core which pronged him to do the same.
Only now did he realize that while the disappearance of the happy memory strengthened the gray wasteland, it also increased the power of the light in the center of the mindscape.
"Is this...?" He started, unsure of what he really meant by those words...
"The other one..."Said Pinkamena simply, which prompted Starfall to walk towards the core of the mindscape.
It took him a while to approach the core, which turned out to be another cloud, but this one much bigger, and glowing with strong white light.
He looked at it in wonder but he was once again startled by Pinkamena appearing behind him without making any sound whatsoever.
"This place...was never meant to house two of us at the same time..."She said, and he looked at her, trying to understand this sad version of Pinkie
"...I should have faded a long time ago... but somehow, I managed to resurface for this meaningless struggle...at least this is going to be the last time..." Her eyes darted towards the edge of the core that just received another happy memory before expanding and literarily incinerating the nearby clouds out of existence.
Starfall was shocked seeing this situation, but he didn't have time to ponder it much because he was also right beside the core which was still expanding!
Before he could do anything, the core swallowed him, leaving him with the memory of Pinkamena waving towards him in a slow resigned manner...
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When he woke up again, he found himself again sprawled on the grass made out of candy, but unlike the one in the previous mindscape, this one was vibrant and full of colours, and he almost wanted to give it a taste, but he stopped himself because it was not the time for treats...
His eyes darted around and he found this place resembling the other mindscape by a very large margin...but it was bigger and full of colours.
Though one thing he noticed was the reoccurring lack of movement, as every candy creature and whatever those thing were, seemed to be laying in deep sleep.
Starfall finally started to understand the situation after seeing the situation but there was still some things that puzzled him.
"So...Her normal cheerful personality fell into slumber while automatically gathering power from happy memories of both Pinkies to re-emerge?..." He mused to himself while laying his eyes on the core of this new mindscape.
It was smaller than the large white cloud that swallowed him and it wasn't as bright as the other one.
"...It's alright..." A voice again startled him and he turned his head to see...nothing?
His gaze went down and he found Pinkie Pie laying on the ground with her eyes closed.
"Pinkie?..."He asked unsure as he kneeled beside her and touched her back. He didn't know whether she could hear him but he had to try..."Pinkie...can you hear me?..."
"...Zzzz...mmm...Cupcakes with Curry...and Paprika..."She said confusing Starfall before making him snort.
Right...It's Pinkie Pie alright...
He stood up and walked towards one of the memory clouds nearby, figuring that he won't get anything from her slumbering subconscious manifestation...
He quickly found out that this mindscape didn't consist just of happy memories. It contained everything, both happy, mundane and sad memories which made him have a startling realization.
"Two is too much for a single Pony..." A voice said from behind him and his head again turned, only to see the sleeping avatar of Pinkie laying on the ground...
Starfall opened his eyes wide, finally understanding what he needed to do as his eyes landed on a pair of clouds of which one had been slowly turning into pure mental energy.
When he checked them out previously he found it weird that both of them contained the same happy memory, but now it all made sense.
Pinkie's personality wasn't assimilating Pinkamena...
she was slowly erasing her from existence...
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Starfall woke up back inside of his body, and looked at Pinkie Pie whose eyes were now closed. She seemed to have fallen unconscious, but it appears like in the end there was no danger to his newest 'to be marefriend' all along.
Now he just needed to do one simple thing before waking her back up, and everything should be alright...
________
"Wha-Where am I?...What happened? Where is the Candy flavoured Condor?!" She asked as she finally woke up from her sleep, laying on a hospital bed in Starfall's basement.
"It's alright Pinkie...I'm here..." Said a voice from her side and only now did she realize that Starfall wad sitting right beside her bed looking at her with concern.
The Stallion in question decided to ignore her weird questions, being more focused on checking whether the Pink mare was truly alright and wasn't suffering any side effects from her recent literal 'psyhic breakdown'...
"Starfall!... I'm so Super-Hyper Happy to see you!" She exclaimed before catching him in a strong, nearly bone breaking hug.
"Haha! Seems like you're alright then?" He said returning the hug with a smile.
"Yeah...I think so...What happened?" Asked the Pink mare in curiosity and Starfall looked at her worriedly.
"You don't remember?" He asked and she shook her head.
"I do, but all I know Is that my hair started to straighten and all my emotions started to disappear all of a sudden. It was horrible! You can't even describe how terrible it is to feel nothing but sadness, and then...nothing..Candy. but I had a funny dream... There was that Flavoured Condor who asked me if I could hear him but he flew away before I could respond and give him a Bruschetta..." She said and Starfall made a funny expression hearing the last part.
"Ah...well, as far as I can tell, your emotions awoke some old second personality of yours, which in turn sped up the process of healing. As far as I can tell, you are now free from the possibility of that Sad Pinkamena taking over ever again!" He said and Pinkie's eyes opened wide in surprise.
"You... you're right! I-I feel so light! It's as if a headache that I had for a very long time and didn't realize suddenly disappeared!" Pinkie cheered before to his surprise she grabbed Starfall into an even tighter embrace before giving him a searing kiss that he soon returned with eagerness.
As their lips finally parted, Pinkie looked at Starfall lovingly and with a blush before she started to chuckle...
"What is it?" Starfall asked not understanding why she laughed.
"Well *giggle* I didn't expect our first serious kiss to be in such weird circumstances..." She said trying to stop her laughter.
Starfall snorted and pecked her nose playfully.
"I guess that's true haha! I also didn't really expect you to kiss me right after what happened. I was already planning a second date that wouldn't involve emotional breakdowns and second personalities." He said with amusement making Pinkie chuckle.
"Well...I certainly wouldn't mind a second date."She winked."But maybe let's try to make it less eventful." She also joked and Starfall couldn't help but laugh agreeing with Pinkie.
Suddenly the doors opened and five pretty Mares stumbled into the room followed by Spike and Phoebe.
"Starfall! Is she alright?!" Asked Twilight with concern clear in her voice.
"Pinkie! Don't go towards the light!" Screamed Rainbow, while Fluttershy and Rarity tried to catch their breath from all the running while still having concern clear on their faces.
"Where is mah Pinkie Sugarcube!? Ah got some onion syrup, Old family recipe! It can get rid of any sickness with a blast o fire!" Said Applejack taking out a jar of what was most likely the syrup out of her saddlebag.
"Relax girls haha! Pinkie is alright! And sorry AJ Dear, but the syrup wouldn't have helped her much if in the first place X..." Said Starfall reassuringly while pinkie waved to the girls with energy making everyone sigh in relief.
"That's a relief...So what happened exactly? You just sen see anyd us a message that Pinkie was ill and didn't explain more. You had us all worried Darling!" Asked Rarity after she finally caught her breath.
Starfall transfigured a bunch of chairs into comfy pouffes before helping Pinkie Pie off the hospital bed.
"Sit down girls, I think Pinkie would need to be a part of the explanation..." He said sending Pinkie Pie a meaningful look which she understood.
She would have to tell them of her childhood so that the explanation made some more sense to the girls...
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"Oh my..." Whispered Fluttershy.
"Oh Dear! Why didn't you tell us sooner? We could have at least given you a hug to cheer you up." Said Rarity after hearing Pinkie's story and Starfall's explanation about the dual personality that the Pink mare suffered from, without even realising...
"Well...I am the party Pony of Ponyville. It wouldn't do for me to show sadness. Even to my friends... right?" Pinkie Pie said unsurely.
Phoebe flew over to Pinkie before pecking her on the head.
"Ouch! What was that for Phoebe?!" Asked Pinkie while managing her head.
"I think what she wants to say is that you shouldn't hide your pain from us Pinkie. As your friends, we would never allow one of our friends to suffer, and we would have been there in an instant to give you a helping hand and cheer you up. After all, friendship works both ways, and just because you are the Element of laughter, it doesn't mean we can't make you happy too." Said Twilight Making Pinkie Pie tear up from the Purple unicorn's words.
"Nicely said Twily! Now...who wants to play spin the bottle? It was pretty long since the last time we did it!" Asked Starfall and all the girls cheered.
"Uhh...maybe I'll go now...My friends wanted to try some new Cutie Mark ideas today and I promised to be there to help them..." Spike said while slowly moving towards the door, and Phoebe had the same idea as she flew out of the room not wanting to spend any more time with the adults doing naughty thing to each other.
"Sure Spike. Just go back before Nightfall alright? We're making cookies tomorrow and I don't want you to oversleep again." Said Twilight making Spike blush at the memory.
The rest of the day passed by in a friendly atmosphere as Starfall and his six Marefriends had their first spin the bottle in this newest relationship arrangement. It didn't turn out into anything too inappropriate, despite what Spike and Phoebe expected, because Pinkie Pie was still not ready for that type of thing, but it was all in all a fun and enjoyable afternoon....
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Starfall slowly walked down the white, marble stairs, passing by the rooms designated as "Study", "Rune Research", "Artifact Research" And a few others, before finally stopping in front of larger door with a placket named "The Vault"
He passed the heavily enchanted and reinforced doors, and he found himself in a large chamber soon coming across dozens of experiments and prototypes of runic artifacts, with the mind connecting artifact laying open among them, the large box connected to the crowns, missing a large spherical component inside of it...
Starfall though ignored the artifacts and went further, passing into the next chamber that housed glass domes containing a bunch of magical creatures each, such as Parasprites, and even a basilisk and a timberwolf!
Researching the basilisk gave him some understanding about how to resist petrification and even how to inflict it himself which he found surprisingly easier than you would have been led to believe and also pretty effective against villains and monsters...
the timberwolf on the other hand was a really interesting example of natural golemancy which could in a sense fall under the label of a natural artifact. It was a pretty useful subject in his current research, but he of course made sure that the creature wasn't uncomfortable in its 'cage' or Fluttershy would have had his skin...
Starfall passed the Creature Containment Units and went into the Storage area where hundreds of hundreds of shelves and drawers covered the walls, containing multiple magical materials and some things he wanted to keep away from prying eyes.
He touched one of the drawers and it slid open, revealing a crystal sphere containing a wild blackish blue smoke...It was a piece of Nightmare Moon's corrupted magic...
He closed the drawer and walked to the second one which slid open revealing another crystal ball, but this one, unlike the previous one contained a grayish pink cloud...
He looked at the sphere with a sad smile and caressed it with his hoof.
"You didn't deserve such fate...But don't worry...I'm going to help you..." He whispered and the crystal ball momentarily illuminated before going back to its previous state...
Status Power Mingguan
-- Peringkat
Power 
-- Power
stone