MLP: A Blessing in Disguise. Part 1

It was another morning; but unlike what was expected by most, the world found itself blanketed beneath an oncoming onslaught of rain. A thunderstorm had claimed Canterlot and its neighboring establishments and sought to bring misery in its wake, to which it vastly succeeded. However, this was not the only ill fate that was to befall Canterlot.

As of this time, the magistrate of Canterlot, Princess Celestia, was currently preoccupied with one of the daily appointments with her personal patient, Pinkie Pie. It had been 2 weeks that Pinkie Pie spent under Celestia's care, as the princess paid great devotion to the formerly-excitable misfit, and desired beyond all else to grant her peace from her mental instability.

Because of this, Pinkie Pie had grown accustom to these visits as Celestia would search for ways to exterminate her alternate personality, Pinkamena. However, and rather miraculously, Pinkamena had yet to resurface since the events of the previous fortnight; but instead of finding relief from this fact, Pinkie Pie only felt fear as to when this malevolent entity would reemerge.

For most visits, Celestia would perform the roll of a psychiatrist, often asking questions in order to discover the most beneficial course of treatment, whilst simultaneously remaining wary of specific topics regarding her past or her relationship with this anomaly. However, today was different; an uncomfortable atmosphere descended throughout the room as Celestia remained silent, Pinkie Pie waiting intently for the former to speak first.

Silence.

Until finally, "Pinkie Pie… I wanted to tell you something" was uttered from Celestia from across the room. Pinkie Pie sat nonchalantly in her seat, focusing her attention on the alicorn and muttering "Is... something wrong… Celestia?" The latter sighed restlessly and turned to face her client; "In all honesty… I…" Celestia began, before trailing off inconveniently. Celestia hung her head in consideration and thought to herself "I can't say it… not in front of her…" Pinkie Pie waited for what felt like an eternity before Celestia rose her head and muttered "I…I… don't…" As soon as the word 'don't' was heard, Pinkie Pie knew fully well of what Celestia was insistent, yet reluctant, to say.

"You don't think you can help me…"

Celestia lowered her head and cried out dramatically "I am so sorry, Pinkie Pie; but I have no clue of what I can do for you" before shaking her head in dismay, "I've failed you… horribly!" Celestia arose from the seat and staggered towards a nearby bookcase. "I've spent all the time I can spare searching for any means that may help you. Magic, medicine, anything!" Celestia removed multiple books with a levitation charm, before reinserting them into the bookcase. "Nothing works, or it just makes things worse!" Celestia cringed.

Pinkie Pie then remembered her previous visit from 3 days ago, which resulted in her losing a majority of her perception of reality for over an hour, all but complementing this outburst. "I'm really sorry, Pinkie Pie" she concluded, "But I don't think I can help you". After a few minutes of unbearable silence, Pinkie Pie eventually arose from her seat and left the confinements of Celestia's personal boudoir for the exit; and Celestia, for her part, was left to ponder if she had done the right thing in abandoning this cause, an ever-increasing sense of guilt welling in her heart.

Pinkie Pie half-mindedly stumbled her way through the hallways and eventually found her way back to the main entrance, where her friends had waited expectantly for her return. As she stopped before them, Twilight stood before her and asked "Hey Pinkie Pie, how did it go?" From the evident enthusiasm she displayed in asking this question, Twilight was clearly displaying her optimism for a positive answer.

Contradictory to Twilight's expectations, Pinkie simply lowered her head as her eyes gazed towards the ground, her body twitching in despair. From behind a concerned Twilight, stepped an equally worried Maud Pie, who rushed to her sister and asked hesitantly "Pinkie Pie, what happened?" Pinkie Pie shut her eyes tightly, shedding the newly emerging tears as they spilled down each of her cheeks. "Cele-…" Pinkie Pie began before abruptly losing her voice, but had no intent to remedy such a hindrance. Instead, she shook her head in dismay.

"She's… given up on me".

Twilight jaw dropped as an expression of pure devastation had spread across her face. She stepped away and lay her hoof on her chest, bearing witness to her own increasing heartbeat. Twilight was in utter disbelief of this outcome, and even greater disbelief that her teacher, one of the wisest and most all-knowing of creatures, would surrender her client to such a grim fate. Maud desired to avoid a confrontation of any form and abruptly announced "Let's get home as quick as we can, before it starts raining again", before peering up towards the cloudy sky.

---

By the time they had finally returned back to the bakery, the sky had become a blackening field of stars and Twilight had already parted ways. As they came to the door, however, they found that somepony had apparently been expecting them, as a lone figure was currently leaning against their front door. As they curiously, and cautiously, approached the figure, they found it to be their overly sanitary associate.

"Rarity? What's going on?" Pinkie Pie asked aloud; Rarity was clearly unfocused, ignoring this greeting and continuing to think to herself. "Hey Rarity!" Maud Pie called out to her, finally drawing her attention from whatever thought had crossed her mind as she finally looked towards them. "Oh! Hey, you two!" she quickly called out in hesitation to greet them, considering the reputation that such an upper-class figure must uphold. Rarity stepped away from the doorway and swiftly made her way to the duo to converse the situation.

"What going on? What are you doing here?" Pinkie Pie asked curiously, to which Rarity began explaining her case. "Listen, I…" she began before pausing, possibly to find the right words to say, "I'm gonna head out of town for a few days… So, I need my sister to stay somewhere while I'm gone". While Maud had not known Rarity long enough to understand her claim, Pinkie Pie's memory reflected back to memories of Rarity's sister, namely Sweetie Belle. While not acquainting with her directly, Pinkie Pie had been told on multiple occasions of her skills, especially her supposed 'singing prowess'.

"Well, I've never seen your sister… but I can- urk!" Pinkie then pressed her hoof against her temple and groaned in discomfort. Both Maud and Rarity were truly surprised by this action, as Pinkie Pie had shown no sign of anxiety nor trauma thus far. Maud asked worriedly "Pinkie Pie?! What's wrong!?" only for Pinkie Pie's sudden headache to quickly cease.

After the throbbing pain subsided, Pinkie Pie grunted in disapproval "Ugh! I'm not that big of a timebomb, you idiot! Would you just-!" before covering her mouth in surprise of her own outburst. "Sorry! I'm sorry! I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to say that!" she blabbered in a flustered panic, hoping to redeem herself of any act of malice that she may have committed.

Whilst Pinkie Pie was distracted by her self-invoked panic, a lone figure stepped quietly into view of the door, shyly peeking out from behind the defense of the wooden structure. Rarity looked behind her and saw this figure, calling "Hey, Sweetie! Come out here!" in a cheerful tone. The figure sauntered through the doorway and revealed herself to be the aforementioned sibling, who smiled shyly, "Hey there, Pinkie Pie".

Rarity then fixed her gaze upon Maud and explained "Look, I wouldn't have had you do this for me, but I thought that two ponies would be better to look after her". Rarity possibly mentioned this in order to assure the duo of her consideration in this matter, having decided the best course of action for her younger sibling. However, as Maud became aware of such consideration and respected it, Pinkie Pie remained skeptical of this decision and desperately wished to object to it; but to avoid any further grief upon the situation she had found herself in, she decided against it.

"Don't worry, Rarity. We'll take care of her" Maud assured, resulting in an appreciative smile from the former. Rarity then looked through the window to the living room and gazed upon the clock, which currently chimed 8:00. "Ack! I'm already late for the train! I gotta go! Bye!" Rarity yelled in a panic. Pinkie Pie turned to say goodbye, but Rarity had already disappeared into the streets, unfortunately neglecting the trio in their endeavor to bid her farewell.

Maud Pie, Pinkie Pie and Sweetie Belle all entered the abode at once as Sweetie whistled to herself gleefully. Pinkie Pie suddenly felt a sensation of drowsiness wash over her, diminishing her senses for a short period of time. She stumbled forward clumsily as her eyes shut wearily, before regaining her sense of oncoming danger and quickly stabilizing herself. "I'm sorry… Maud… I'm too tired. I'm off to bed" she muttered sleepily before trudging her way upstairs to her bedroom, neglecting to see if either of the duo had heard her.

---

As night had finally settled upon the world, the night itself was relatively peaceful for a majority of its passing. After Pinkie Pie had resigned herself to fatigue and ended up spending little more than an hour in a deep slumber, Maud had spent the night looking after Sweetie Belle for her. However, while Pinkie Pie was resting peacefully at the stroke of 9:00, she was suddenly awoken by the sound of a loud, metallic clatter. She began squirming under her sheets as she stirred into consciousness, groggily lifting her head from the pillow and lazily opening a single eye.

"Gergh…what was…?" she muttered unintelligibly before stretching her arms above her and dropping from the bed. As she made her way down the stairs, she then heard the sounds of laughter. She stopped halfway down the staircase and listened carefully to the voices that conversed within the kitchen. The high pitch of the voices indicated that they were no more than fillies, but none of the voices were recognizable to her. As she continued her stagger her way to the first floor, she turned the corner to find an unexpected sight.

Three fillies were in her kitchen, one of which being Sweetie Belle, though the others' identities could not be categorized within her previous affiliations. As they continued to chat amongst themselves, Maud entered through the living room to find Pinkie Pie, gasping in surprise and exclaiming "Pinkie Pie! I'm so sorry! We didn't mean to wake you up!"

From this sudden, loud apology, the attention to their conversation was broken as the three fillies peered towards their half-asleep observer. "What are you all doing here?" Pinkie Pie asked in confusion, to which the three minors looked at eachother sheepishly. Sweetie Belle then stepped forward and explained "Well… I… invited them over".

Pinkie Pie sighed in relief and replied "Oh… Okay. But can you please be a little bit more quiet?" before turning to return to her personal boudoir. Before she could, though, an orange filly stepped forward and asked "Hey, uh… Pinkie Pie?" Pinkie Pie stopped to listen, turning her head to reveal an expression of quizzical curiosity.

"Do you have a split perso- pers- personal-ity?"

From this broken pronunciation of words, an unsettling atmosphere engulfed the house, and all that dwelled within it. A bitter chill had spread through Pinkie Pie's muscles from this rather simple question; simple, and yet questionable in itself. Pinkie Pie's heart had increased in pace as she trembled nervously, before asking "Who… who told you… about that?"

Scootaloo stepped backwards nervously and answered "It was… Spike. He said that you had some kind of problem with your hea-" before covering his mouth suddenly, as if such an action would undo his statement. From this unmasking of the informant, Pinkie Pie shut her eyes tightly and tensed in frustration. She understood that Spike was on the more naïve or gullible side, but without a just reason to expose such an important secret to others, Spike must've done it on purpose.

Pinkie Pie gritted her teeth in rage as her hair began lowering over her head, as her pupils had begun shrinking to an unnatural size. As soon as Maud realized what was happening to her sister from these signs, she leapt in front of her and violently shook her from her alternate state of being, screaming "Hey! Pinkie Pie! PINKIE PIE!"

Pinkie Pie shook her head as she finally returned to reality, her eyes and hair returning to their original appearance. Pinkie Pie knew clearly of what almost happened, and was quick to attempt avoiding any direct conversation before such a situation could occur again, but with more successful outcomes for the sinister anomaly behind it.

Without another word, Pinkie Pie ran up the stairs and confined herself within her bedroom, without as much as a word spoken to those that witnessed it. Scootaloo gulped and muttered "Sorry… I didn't mean to… insult her or anything!" drawing Maud's attention to the flustered filly. "Hey, Hey! Don't worry about it; you haven't insulted anypony here!" Maud reassured, before considering the situation and lamenting "All the same, though… that's a pretty touchy subject".

Meanwhile, unbeknownst to the group below, Pinkie Pie didn't return to her slumber as they had assumed, and instead sat quietly in a pool of despair. Ponies are starting to learn about her secret, and this fact alone had brought a shattering pain to her heart. And soon enough, she had begun considering the inevitable questions to ponder.

If those fillies knew about it, who else would?

To be continued…