His masterpiece, it was just about finished with it’s first stage! It had taken a few days of obsessively continuing construction on his slightly insanity-driven desire to do one, simple, thing.

Recreate Kami’s Lookout from Dragonball to make a gog-damn Hyperbolic Time Chamber properly.

But first! Came Korin’s Tower! “I pluck a stone, make it polished and shone~.” Bronze summoned yet another not-so-random gigantic block of Canterhorn mountain’s inner levels of incredibly dense and stable white stone. “I carve and grind, no I don’t mind~.” Bronze then, without touching it, molded the block into a perfect copy of the section of pillar/tower he was standing on. “Then I allow it to be felled~!” Bronze was crushed by the section of stone pillar, which then seamlessly molded into the matching stone pillar below it as Bronze simple came out the top of it. “To get it to meld~!”

Bronze then broke out into a fit of manic giggles, his swirled eyes spinning. “There! I think that’s high enough!” Bronze stated as he warped to the edge of the thick and sturdy vertical pillar and looked down, down, down at the world below, from up there he could see all of the Everfree and the lands just beyond, the air up there was thin, and would’ve been hard to breathe if Bronze didn’t just bring air from ground level straight to his lungs. “Hm, I’ve got to figure out how to get more air up here for ponies who can’t just nerf logic like I can.”

“Son!” Came the sonorous voice of Bronze’s mother, getting the crazed stallion to blink and look off to the side and see his mother Luna land on the edge of the ornate pillar, giving him a reproachful look. “Thou hast avoided everypony for days! Dost thou not remember the peril thou art in?” Luna demanded as she trotted closer to him, getting him to look at her in bewilderment.

“Whatever do you mean mum? I’m just dandy! Perchance a mite randy. But that could be due to our isolation and lack of masturbation. For look! I can see out over a grand portion of our nation! Dost this location, not suit our station and vocation-ACK!?” Bronze snarled at a needle being jabbed into his neck, and he hissed ferally before Luna cast the Liquid Pain spell she learned from Rin on a large decanter, which promptly began to fill with the potent red liquid of pure power. “Ah...uh….” Bronze weakly uttered as his glowing and spinning eyes slowed down, before stopping and ceasing to glow. “Oh...I did it again didn’t I?”

“Thou certainly did. This is the third time thou hast forgotten to come to us for treatment. We art considering placing a binding spell upon thee to forcibly bring thee to us when it is time to-.” Luna had to summon another container as the decanter began to overflow with Bronze’s fluid agony. “-to bring thee back to sanity.” Luna stated with a disappointed tone, and Bronze wilted as the needle finished injecting the Sanity Serum into his Carotid Artery.

“Sorry mom….” Bronze despondently apologized, he’d been overcome with his sudden obsession to recreate Korin Tower and the Lookout to ‘properly’ recreate the Hyperbolic Time Chamber, and he’d completely lost himself before his sanity had slipped. ‘This is why I stopped playing Minebuild and Skybound….’

“It is not alright, but we can sympathize son with thine inability to resist succumbing to thine impulses under that serpent’s influence.” Luna gently admonished as she looked at the large beaker she’d moved the Liquid Pain spell to, wearily and worriedly looking at just how much pain the serum was causing her child. “It is still getting worse. Were it not for this spell, the serum would have killed thee from shock this time.” Luna then closed off the spell, making Bronze hiss at the soreness the needle had left behind before Luna magically sealed the decanter and beaker with wax and sent them to the Shadow Realm for Rin to pick up at her leisure as per their agreement.

“Mom, I’m scared. I don’t know how much longer we can do this before I do something irrevocably horrible to somepony.” Bronze sniffled as he laid down on the monument to what he could only consider his madness. ‘Great, now I don’t have the drive to finish this project. I think I’ll just build Korin’s Tower and put the Doorway to the Hyperbolic Time Chamber here instead of trying to create a Geostationary platform even higher in the atmosphere...wait…. “Mom, how’re you breathing up here? I mean, I’m bringing fresh ground-level oxygen to my lungs, what’re you doing?”

Luna blinked at the astute question, as if it were unusual. “Son, we can fly in the depths of space and not need any air. Alicorns and other godly beings don’t follow conventional rules.” Luna answered simply, and Bronze blinked before he stopped bringing ground-level air to his lungs, and blinked again.

“Huh...well, that’s cool.” Bronze mused, before shrugging. “Oh well, want to see me finish Korin’s Tower mom?”

“We would love to son, but thou has already missed some goings-on with thine friends, and they art concerned.” Luna mentioned before yawning. “Also, we art exhausted from having sought thee out during our sleep hours. Good day son, and please see to thine friends and lovers, they miss thee.” Luna softly admonished before teleporting, likely to her room, and Bronze felt like crap for having completely isolated himself from his friends and family.

Again.

‘You’d think that Equestria and all my friends would’ve changed that about me, but I still run away….’ Bronze despondently thought to himself as he warped from the top of his unfinished tower in the middle of the depths of the Everfree and popped out of thin air in the middle of Ponyville Central Square, blinking at seeing some sort of runway-style stage being disassembled. “Whoa, did I miss a fashion show or something?”

“Yes, and it was a good one at that.” Bronze turned to see Spike in all his teenage draconic glory sitting on his haunches and crossing his forelegs/arms as he looked at Bronze disapprovingly, further enhanced by how he kept his long serpentine neck as tall as possible to let him leer down at the alicorn from an even higher few feet over Bronze’s 8 foot height. “Dude, you’ve been gone for almost a week! The fact we guessed you were the one building that ridiculously tall stone monument in the Everfree was all that kept us from panicking about you going off the deep end again.”

Bronze winced at one of his few guy friends being so visibly upset with him. “Spike, I’m sorry. I kinda did...again. I guess we should be lucky that building Korin Tower was all i did while I was wacko again.” Bronze informed sadly. “So I’m guessing those dresses Rarity was making turned out great?”

“Yea, the ‘first time’ with little stress on Rarity too according to Twilight. She instantly shut down anypony’s complaints about her dresses and forced us to hold this fashion show, even got Hoity Toity to attend somehow.” Spike rolled his eyes but smiled softly. “All this ‘knowledge of the future’ garbage may be a headache, but it’s nice that Twilight is trying so hard for all of us. I just hope she doesn’t burn herself out keeping tabs on all these time shenanigans.”

“Me too. Warned her not to worry about it, but eh, Twilight is as Twilight does.” Bronze shrugged, before getting a familiar, if hushed gasp from behind him, and Bronze broke out in a beaming smile as he spun around to see Pinkie Pie. “Pinks! Sup mare? I missed ya while I was off in OCD Lala Land.” Bronze smiled radiantly, but he stopped in bemusement at seeing Pinkie’s knees wobble, put a hoof to her chest, and her cheeks blush. “Uh...Pinks?”

“GottagonicetoseeyouagainBronziebye!” Pinke rapidly sputtered out, and ran off fast as she usually did, leaving Bronze and Spike completely bewildered.

“What’s with Pinks?” Bronze asked his dragon buddy, who shrugged.

[@]

Pinkie bolted into her bedroom upstairs of Sugarcube Corner, slamming the door shut and leaning back against it while standing on her hind legs and clutching her chest worriedly with her forehooves as her hair straightened out. “No~! Pinkie, you Pinkie Promised you wouldn’t...but you did!” Pinkie worriedly stated to herself before she let herself back on all fours, her knees still weak, her heart still fluttering, her face still flushed. “I knew I had a crush on him for a long time, but he already has AJ, Zecora and Shamy! You promised you wouldn’t let this happen!”

Pinkie shouted at her reflection as she walked into her bathroom, a flustered and embarrassed Pinkamena reflected in the mirror. “But he’s so dreamy! He’s a total hunk, he’s sweet, and even though he doesn’t like parties, he’s so silly and fun! Help me out here Gummy!” Mirror Pinkamena rebutted, switching views to the baby alligator suddenly on the countertop, that slowly blinked one eye, then the other out of sync. “I know! He’s our dream colt!”

“But you just said he doesn’t like parties! Our stallion has to love parties!” Pinkie weakly countered, feeling even more unsure of herself. “I mean, we Pinkie Promised Ourselves we wouldn’t fall for him~!” Pinkie wailed and cried into the sink, Pinkamena in the mirror looking down at her sadly. “And now, after having been away from him so long, it just hit me so hard~!”

“But...you know the Old Rules...we found him First.” Pinkamena growled out, getting Pinkie to sniffle and hiccup. “By tradition, that should mean we have first dibs on him.” Pinkamena ground out angrily. “But we were too shy about it, Applejack got the courage to ask for his companionship first, then Zecora, then Shampoo, and we just silently stayed on the sidelines, when he should be Ours!”

“B-b-but they’re all our Friends! Friends don’t hurt friends!” Pinkie countered in an upset tone, before Mirror Pinkamena reached out and grabbed the skin of her chest with her hoof, and hoisted her up to eye level, Pinkie’s eyes widening in fear as Pinkamena glared into her.

“Then by all rights, they hurt us first!” Pinkie dropped to the floor of her bathroom, laying still, her reflection gone as it should be, but Pinkie raised her head and an angry scowl marred her usually smiling, happy face. “It’s time we do something to make us happy Pinkie.”

[@]

“AJ you know I’m sorry~.” Bronze whined pathetically as he crawled behind his First Mare in prostration as the upset and annoyed orange mare trotted away with her current load of apples in baskets on her back.

“Eeyup.” Applejack simply replied, getting Bronze to have tears pour out of his eyes in thin waterfalls. AJ only ever did this if she was genuinely upset.

“Yer lucky Ah don’t cuff ya one on the noggin for all the worryin’ yer idiocy been causin’ mah family.” Big Mac angrily stated, making Bronze whimper, Big Mac only spoke more than a few words when he was similarly upset.

“Please~! Shampoo’s already kicked me out of the mansion, Zecora’s thrown acid vials at me, and now you’re not even letting me apologize either~! Have pity on my crazy self!” Bronze pleaded, getting a huff out of AJ and she kicked a clod of dirt and grass onto his face, spearing on his horn, and making him choke on a sob.

“Look, jus’ let things cool down. Now that they’ve gotten their say in, let em cool their heads. Then try again, even if yer a neglectful idiot.” Big Mac angrily snorted after his words. “We jus’ care ya foal, but right now we’re all quite upset with ya.” Big Mac then continued after his sister, leaving the depressed and crying Bronze to reflect on his constant neglect of his friends and lovers the past months.

‘First, it was me going loco-in-the-coco at Hearth’s Warming, then I was gone for two months, then the Estrus hit not even a week after I got out, so there was that, and now I’ve just been...away, all the time. I’m a horrible friend and lover~!’ Bronze sniffled and shuddered with a silent sob, before he felt a warm body hug his neck and nuzzle the spot between his ears.

“Shh. Auntie Pinkie is here.” Pinkamena with her straight and shiny hair cooed as she removed the dirt from his face and wiped the tear-caused mud off his cheeks. “She’ll make it all better.”

“Pinks?” Bronze asked in surprise, before she nuzzled his cheek, and walked behind a tree, vanishing from his spatial senses. “Why...did she feel different?”

[@]

AJ was dumping her bushel of apples into the root cellar of the barn, trying and failing to stay mad at her stallion, before sighing and wilting. “Mac...Ah had no clue bein’ this mad would hurt me too….” AJ whispered as she let her brother dump his load of apples by moving aside from the underground silo’s hatch. “Ah feel right rotten now. Ah jus’ wanna gallop on back and apologize to ‘im. Ah wanna kiss ‘im, tell ‘im Ah’m not sore no more and jus’ make up.”

“AJ, let me tell ya. Right now, he feels lower than dirt. But he needs to learn he can’t just take off without a how-do-ya-do.” Mac gently told his sister who was looking back at the orchard she’d left Bronze sadly. “Don’t ya give in so soon. He’s gotta get it in his screwy head he can’t leave ya lonely so carelessly.”

“He’s learned enough.” Came a disturbingly furious voice, and before Mac could do more than blink, a wooden mallet struck him over the head, knocking him out cold and making AJ gasp in shock at seeing Pinkamena standing on her hind legs, her forehooves wrapped around the handle of the offending weapon, sporting the most enraged expression she’d ever seen on a pony. “I think it’s you who needs a lesson in pain!”

[@]

Zecora was slowly and tiredly reversing the damage her acid vials had done to her home from her infuriated and uncalled-for assault on her coltfriend and mate. Sure, his neglect was cause for distress, but it wasn’t until he’d fled that Zecora had snapped out of it, and wept at hurting the stallion she loved. “I should leave the stains, to remind me of my pains.” Zecora sadly mused as she stopped using a restorative potion on a hole in her floor to stare at it in sadness. “I have been too late to realize, I should have allowed him to apologize.”

“Far, far too late….” Came a snarling voice, and before Zecora could react with her warrior reflexes, a cloth flour sack was pulled over her head, and she struggled when somepony on her back began to strangle her.

[@]

Shampoo was blankly staring at the ceiling over her, laying splayed out on the grand oversized bed she usually shared with Bronze...some months ago, before the Windigo Invasion. It was just as cold and lonely without him as ever, worse actually after she’d lashed out at him finally returning and even used her hair to force him from his own home to Vivian’s protests.

The formerly unhinged mare was hating herself right now. She too was once insane, driven to compulsion and vile action by her psychosis. Where was her sympathy for her stallion, who was now also facing insanity, and unlike her lacked any potentially normal chance to recover? Oh, there it is, as she laid here, alone, once more, without her beloved.

“He saves me...and this is how I repay him?” Shampoo weakly asked herself, dried tear stains darkening her cheeks as the purple and green mare turned over and curled into a ball, planning to sleep alone once more in sadness.

“Apparently so.” Shampoo didn’t even get to open her eyes before the blankets practically closed around her, and she screamed in shock, unable to escape the odd confinement even with her incredible strength of both body and hair.

[@]

Bronze warped into Ponyville General, frantically rushing to the reception. “Where’s Mac?! I just got the news that he’s been admitted with a concussion.”

“He’s this way my prince.” Nurse Redheart informed as she quickly pranced into the hospital, Bronze following. “He’s recovering quickly as expected of an Earth Pony, but we’ll still be keeping him overnight and awake so his concussion doesn’t kill him before he stabilizes.”

“Don’t worry about that, just let me see him and I’ll fix him.” ‘Gotta admit, the power to just put things ‘just so’ is awesome, kinda scary I can do it to living things though. I hope that Discord guy is willing to let me be sane again so I don’t accidentally do something awful….’ Bronze mused as Redheart quickly guided him to his assaulted friend, who was blankly staring off at the ceiling with glazed eyes as Granny Smith held his hoof at his bedside. “Granny, what happened?”

“Ah don’ know young’n. Ah heard a scuffle by the barn and took a trot from mah rockin’ chair to see the ruckus. Done found Mac laid out like a sack o’ taters and signs a’ struggle done happened. Ah hollered fer Applejack, but she didn’t come gallopin’ even when Ah hit the dinner bell which nopony would miss.” Granny worriedly informed as she rubbed her grandson’s hoof in concern. “Ah’m just thankful Bloom’s off with her friends right now, she’d be plumb scared a’ what happened.”

“Well whatever happened, Mac’s gonna tell us once I get his brain sorted out, give me a minute granny.” Bronze gently soothed the elderly mare, who nodded in consent as he rounded the bed and got his forehooves on the bed, lowering his head to Mac’s and laying his long horn across his temple. ‘Holy hell, he took a really bad hit with a blunt object, no hoof or otherwise could leave an indent like that in the skull, he’s lucky he’s so tough that only a concussion was the result.’

It took only a moment, Bronze moved the cracked pieces of skull back into place, fusing them together in the spots they were supposed to be, and then set about reducing the swelling in Mac’s brain and reset the damage area to it’s original state. Mac quickly jolted into awareness and gasped as he bolted upright, practically tossing the larger, heavier stallion to the floor if he didn’t flare his wings to balance himself. “AJ! She took her!”

“Who? Who took AJ?!” Bronze snapped to alert at Mac’s statement, not even knowing anything had happened to AJ as of yet, since the messenger who sought Bronze out was only informed of Mac’s condition, and that as a close friend, Bronze would want to be informed.

“Ah was already conked out, but ‘fore mah sight went dark, Ah saw pink. Plenty of pink.” Big Mac asserted severely, and Bronze’s eyes widened in shock as his ears bent back.

‘Oh no….’

[@]

“-Ah-ha-ha-ha~! Pinkie~! Stahp~! HA~ ha-ha~!” Applejack cried helplessly, tears streaming down her face as she was stretched out on a table by all her hooves, some sort of apparatus above her mercilessly tickling her all over with feathers.

“We are sorry, please, release us from this torment!” Zecora pleaded, her lips drooling as she was tied up in ribbons to a chair at a small table and blindfolded with her mouth just out of reach of utterly delicious and succulent fatty fruit cake that was hot, fresh, and made her stomach roar with want for the delectable delight so close, but unattainable.

“I don’t get what’s so bad about this. I find it enjoyable.” Shampoo cooed as Pinkamena desperately tightened the rack that she’d fastened Shampoo’s mane and tail to since they were the biggest danger, only to pull more hair out of the mare like she was a bottomless pit of beautiful locks of hair as her body actually shrank down a bit, like her body was nothing but hair. “Ah~...so much tension is just flowing out of me….”

“I’m not hurting you right?” Pinkamena asked worriedly of the once huge mare, as she’d shrunk down to almost the size of a normal pony from all the pulling the improvised rack of rolling pins and various other cookware had done to her.

“Mm, not at all. I’d say keep going if doing that wouldn’t make me too small for Bronze’s tongue.” Shampoo admitted with a relaxed sigh. “Gonna be Tartarus to get back up to size though, might even need to eat more hair.”

“Oh~ This isn’t working! I can’t do this anymore! I just wanted you all to learn a lesson about hurting your loved ones, and instead I’m just making AJ laugh, Zecora hungry, and Shampoo teeny-tiny!” Pinkamena lamented as she moved to a mirror, Pinkie looking out at her in concern. “Pinkie, I don’t know what to do! They’re our friends and I’ve already hurt them enough, but how do I apologize for this?” Pinkamena asked her usually cheery self.

“Y-ya could-*giggle*-git us outta-ha-ha-ha-this first~!” Applejack managed to sputter out between chortles.

“She’s right, we have to let them out and try to apologize. This is all your fault you know.” Pinkie leered at her more vindictive half, who suitably seemed ashamed. “We should’ve just admitted our feelings to that huge hunky silly dummy, not foalnap his herd and torture them.”

“Pinkie Pie, please say it is a lie. Do I hear a conversation of ‘Me Myself, and I’?” Zecora asked from her bound chair, her ears attentively angled towards the pink mares, who both froze in realizing they’d been seen and heard speaking to themselves.

“No, it seems Pinkie has MPD or somesuch on a level capable of magical manifestation. Not the oddest thing, seen a few villains who had it like Two-Face.” Shampoo informed as she crossed her forelegs and nodded as much as her hair restraints would allow. “It’s not a big deal, it would explain why Pinkie has such an extreme personality archetype compared to most ponies in her occupation.”

“Tha-a-a-ats all well and-gah-hah-good! But git us outta these things!” Applejack desperately shouted, and suddenly the mare’s bonds vanished by sinking into the floor. “Whoa nelly! That was...quite somethin’.”

“At last, the cake shall not be fake!” Zecora cheered after her bindings had simply fallen off and through her to the floor, and then she pounced on the cake with ravenous aplomb.

“Whoa, whoa, WHOA!” Shampoo squeaked as the rack vanished and her hair all rapidly flowed back into her, causing her to grow back into her previous alicorn-level stature. “Oof...that felt really odd. Like having too much to eat at once.” Shampoo shook herself, and gasped at feeling a large body next to her, hugging her.

“I’m sorry you three, for not being there for you for a while, and not coming sooner.” Bronze softly apologized as he nuzzled Shampoo, and then leveled a powerful glare at both Pinkamena and Pinkie reflected in the mirror, who were both looking directly at him despite Pinkamena not even looking at the mirror. “So Pinks, I take it all your teasing and being ‘stupid sexy Pinkie Pie’ were all you actually trying to get my attention?”

“Duh you stupid sexy studly stallion! I thought it was obvious!” Pinkie Pie in the mirror squealed in an upset tone.

“We’re not exactly good at conveying things in ways most ponies can interpret….” Pinkamena grumbled as she kicked a hoof.

“And then we see you after months apart, and our Pinkie Senses just kept flooring us with Knee Knock-Heart Flutter-Face Flush~!” Pinkie wailed and started bawling, the mirror starting to fill with tears.

“We couldn’t take it anymore, we were even fighting over the issue. So I decided to try and take things into my own hooves...look where that got us….” Pinkamena sadly mumbled, before suddenly finding her face being hugged into the chiseled and buff chest of her affections, making her straight hair puff back out in shock.

“Oh, you poor girls. I’m so sorry. You know I’m an oblivious dunce though! You should’ve just told me!” Bronze tiredly chastised them, getting both Pinkamena in his hooves and Pinkie in the mirror to sniffle. “But what’s with the split personalities?”

“I don’t know. One day, a bright rainbow exploded across the dreary sky, banishing the gloom and the sad, and I woke up.” Pinkie in the mirror said. “Pinkamena was just so happy she didn’t notice, I didn’t either really. But as time went on….”

“I was just content to sit back, relax, be happy.” Pinkamena admitted shyly as her hair straightened back out. “But I’ve always been more prone to anger and other more extreme negative emotions than Pinkie, while Pinkie’s been the opposite, prone to joy and just so...good.” Pinkamena weakly said as she leaned into the worried stallion as the mares she’d been torturing all gathered around in concern. “I forgot how tiring being awake and active is….”

“Pinks, this isn’t healthy. Why don’t you see somepony about this?” Bronze asked as Zecora neared and ran her hooves over Pinkamena’s face and head.

“Hm, I cannot properly examine her, but we should get her to a doctor post-haste. She looks and feels ill.” Zecora urged, helping support the dozing mare before Bronze levitated her onto his back and picked up the mirror Pinkie was in.

“What about you Pinkie? What are you doing in there?” Bronze asked in concern as he turned the mirror around, touching it with his hoof and blinking in surprise. ‘The seams, they’re so few and so tight. I don’t think I can even meld into it.’

“I don’t know Bronzie. This has never happened before! I’m scared….” Pinkie hiccuped as she pressed against the inside of the mirror, which reflected everything properly, only it had Pinkie overlaying everything she covered. “I feel trapped, stuck. Is this how Pinkamena felt when I was in control?” Pinkie asked fearfully.

“We’ll have to ask later, but we need to get you two seen to. Girls, round up the others, I’m taking Pinkie to the hospital.” Bronze stated, waiting until they gave affirmatives before he warped away with his ailing friend.

Author's Notes:

Hullo Guvna~! 'Ave a chapta!