Pinkie was sick.

That much was apparent, but it took her conflicting with herself for it to become obvious only just now. Not so much physically as mentally and spiritually however. Pinkamena, or Pinka, hasn’t been the one in control of their body for several years, and unlike Pinkie when she first emerged, didn’t have a surge of energy or ignorance for her to just jump back into her skin without consequence.

Somehow, they’d accidentally split their perspectives using mirrors, and now after Pinka took back her body on a whim, Pinkie was trapped in a mirror, or any mirror that Pinka looked into really, and Pinka, the poor mare, was weak, tired, and listless since her spirit and ego hadn’t been physically active for several years.

The doctors and Twilight theorized that since Pinka wasn’t as synchronized with her body as Pinkie, she was as weak and tired as a tuckered-out newborn, and would have to go through physical and spiritual therapies to get back on her hooves. Of course, they could just help Pinka swap with Pinkie, but both mares were scared to try that again, even if it meant Pinkie was trapped in a mirror for the time being.

Also Pinka preferred healthy snacks, and Pinkie wanted nothing to do with hospital food.

“How can you be eating all those greens raw?” Pinkie asked with a grossed out expression as Pinka slowly and blandly chewed on uncooked broccoli and spinach leaves with a soft smile and lazily lidded eyes. “Also you keep acting more like Maud. I mean, I love her so much, but I didn’t know at our very core, we were more than sisters in blood and name.”

“Sis has always been an inspiration to us. Why should it surprise you that when I’m calm I’m as stone-cool as her?” Pinka asked curiously of her brighter half in the mirror hanging from the wall to her left away from the door so Pinkie could see anypony who came in.

“Cuz you’ve been me, duh!” Pinkie giggled as she hopped in place in her mirror room before jumping onto her bed next to Pinka’s reflection and hugged the straight-haired mare, which Pinka felt as if she wasn’t in the mirror and was right next to her. Pinkie found out she could interact with things in her ‘mirror world’ and affect the real world so long as it was within view of the mirror. Twilight wanted to test this unique phenomenon but Bronze vetoed any testing in that area, since he wanted to focus on getting Pinkie out of the mirror.

“Pinkie, you know that even though I was glad to just let you run things, I still thought of you more as a sibling than a part of me.” Pinka softly rasped out as she hugged the invisible mare and kissed where she figured her brow was, and Pinkie in the mirror giggled.

“I know Pinka. I love you too sis.” Pinkie gushed as she kissed Pinka’s reflection, the mare snorting in amusement at feeling the pecks on her cheek.

“Hey, how’re my favorite fun mares?” Bronze asked as he entered with Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy into the room. The past few days had been constant visits to get updates on the two mare’s conditions, so Bronze had put Korin’s Tower off since his friends needed him. But…. “Now then Dash. I told you I don’t care for sports. I’d rather stay here with Pinks and keep seeing if I can’t make a proxy body for Pinkie.”

“Argh, but dude! You’re like, my only guy friend that isn’t a lazy stick-in-the-mud! Not to mention aside from Shy and Gilda, you’re my only friend who can even go to Cloudsdale to see me perform.” Rainbow Dash complained as she trotted up to Pinka. “Hey Pink, how ya doin’?”

“Wait, what’s going on?” Pinka asked tiredly, and smirked softly when Dash yelped at feeling Pinkie hug her in the mirror.

“Rainbow Dash is performing in the Best Young Flyer Competition up in Cloudsdale tomorrow. But so far it seems only Gilda and I are going to go see her perform, since nopony else can stand on clouds.” Fluttershy gently informed her ailing friend as she moved to the mirror. “Hello Pinkie Pie. How are you doing?”

“Oh I’m doing okay Fluttershy. I mean, sure, I can’t eat, sleep, feel tired or anything while I’m in here for some reason. Something about leeching off of Pinka, isn’t that what Twilight and Zecora said?” Pinkie asked her currently physical half, who sighed and nodded.

“I’m getting better, but whenever Pinkie gets especially rowdy, I have to take a nap or stimulants the staff have prescribed.” Pinka informed, making everypony in the room look worried. “Hey, I’m okay. Just tired all the time.” Pinka reassured them.

“Well, you two get better, I don’t like seeing you two anything but smiles and sunshine.” Rainbow encouraged, before taking a cleansing breath. “I get it Bronze, you do have more important things to tend to. You help Pinkie Pie get out of that mirror or I’ll make you regret missing my Sonic Rainboom.” Dash arrogantly declared to Bronze before she flew out of the room.

"A Sonic-you-hurt-your-what?" Bronze asked in confusion.

"A Sonic Rainboom! It's a rainbow and sonic boom in one! I've always wanted to see one!" Pinkie gushed from her mirror prison as Pinka blearily nodded in agreement from her bed. "If somepony can do it, it'd have to be Dashie!"

"She's already really fast, makes a rainbow contrail. Kinda makes sense." Pinka commented quietly.

“She’s actually done it once before, when we were just fillies. She’s hoping to repeat it at the Best Young Flyer competition.” Fluttershy informed her friends with an unusual amount of eagerness that she usually reserved for the topics of animals.

“Wow, really? But if she did it as a filly, shouldn’t she be able to crank those out like a machine?” Bronze asked curiously, getting Fluttershy to wilt a little.

“No. She hasn’t been able to do it since then. She’s been trying so hard, but it seems she can’t break the sound barrier, it keeps knocking her back just before she can break the air resistance slowing her down.” Fluttershy sadly shook her head. “It was good to see you two Pinkie and Pinkamena, but I have to go and keep Rainbow motivated.” Fluttershy waved and left, leaving an intrigued Bronze, an apathetic Pinka and an excited Pinkie.

“Hm...only pegasi can go up there huh?” Bronze mused with a hoof to his chin, before a devious smirk sprouted and his swirled eyes gave a quick twirl, causing Pinka and Pinkie to blush and shiver. “We’ll see about that.”

[@]

“Thank you so much for getting us out of the hospital for the day Bronzie!” Pinkie Pie gushed from the hoof mirror Pinka was holding in her mouth with a gentle smile, the mare cleared to leave the hospital with medical supervision and a prescription of stimulants to keep her awake. Zecora had volunteered to be the medical assistant for this case so the hospital didn’t have to assign a nurse to accompany them.

“Not a problem Pinks.” Bronze addressed them both, since it not only flustered them for some reason, but it referred to them both at once, making Pinka blush and shuffle her hooves adorably and Pinkie to do the same in her little prison. ‘Dear gog, I wish I’d known they were actually flirting and not just being Pinks. Then all the clopping I’ve been doing to them wouldn’t have been so guilt-filled.’

“I still can’t believe you actually convinced the princesses to lend you a schooner so easily!” Twilight gushed as she teleported all over the small airship that Bronze had borrowed from the Canterlot Aerial-Naval Reserve with permission from his mom and aunt, who told him he didn’t actually need to ask and this ship among others was free to be used by him anyway.

“I’m glad everypony forgets I’m a prince.” Bronze beamed happily, since he really didn’t like being seen as an authority figure, especially since his madness was a very dangerous thing with the power he wielded both literally and politically.

“Well darling, I never forgot, I just know you don’t enjoy special attention.” Rarity commented from the port side next to Spike, looking down at the distant ground as the crew of stallions and mares ponying the ship elevated them higher enroute to Cloudsdale’s current position. Cloudsdale was usually up at the very top of the Planetary Boundary Layer, it’s upper portions cresting up into the bottom of the Troposphere where cloud generation and weather manipulation was easiest for the weather factory to churn out it’s wonders to be shipped by pegasi across the nation and sometimes beyond.

Not even today, on a public event, did the mobile sky city lower its altitude. According to Twilight, it only ever came so low to the ground to get a fresh reservoir of water for the factory. Which just confused Bronze stupid. ‘Why doesn’t it just collect all the natural water the Troposphere attracts?’ Bronze had asked, getting Twilight to blink at him as if he were an idiot, and then inform him, like he was a schoolcolt, that there’s no water in the Troposphere.

Bronze’s logic failed, and then decided to stop bothering trying to reason out or rant about how royally FUCKED UP this world was if it couldn’t even naturally generate it’s own weather outside the airspace of the Everfree.

“Bronze, your rage is showing.” Pinka calmly informed as she held Pinkie in a hoof, and Bronze blinked away the angrily spinning swirls of his eyes until they stopped whirling.

“Sorry Pinka. My fury at how...lazy this world is got the better of me.” ‘This world is a fat slob, needing slaves to tend it….’ Bronze cringed as a spike of pain lanced his head, and he hissed as he stumbled to the railing and leaned against it, waving his concerned friends away. “I’m fine. Fine.” ‘These headaches are getting worse….’ Bronze summoned a tab of painkillers and chewed on it, feeling instant relief before casting his pain killing spell once he could focus again. “I’m good. How much further to Cloudsdale captain?”

“We should be just under her My Prince.” The captain informed, getting everypony not on the crew to look up, and notice the huge mass of clouds around the sky bubble that replaced where sails would be on a normal ship. “We’ll be pulling up into the Cloudsdale Aerial-Naval Port, there the on-site magister will supply your flightless friends with Cloud Walker Shoes so you can all go about town.”

“I could just cast the spell myself, but if we get those shoes I could learn the enchantment too.” Twilight pranced in excitement, Trixie who was standing next to her, rolled her eyes with a grin at her marefriend’s antics.

“Twilight, stop being adorkable before I kiss you.” Trixie threatened, getting Twilight to kiss Trixie instead, and the powder-blue mare hummed as she returned the Prench kiss, getting some hoots and hollers from the crew.

“Twi, please don’t molest your mare in public again.” Bronze teased-slash-warned because Twilight had actually gotten amorous enough once to move on to heavy petting when she and Trixie were on a date at the park. “Beam us up Scotty!”

“How do I do that?!” Shouted a crew stallion with a bewildered look. “I’m no unicorn, how could I ‘beam’ you all up there?” Asked the chocolate-colored and black-maned pegasus at the starboard rigging, apparently named Scotty if the scotch-tape cutie mark on his flanks meant anything besides him being good at piecing things together or whatever abstract meaning his marks had.

“It’s just one of his references, don’t worry about it.” Pinkie dismissed with a giggle as wispy clouds swallowed up the ship, and shortly they pulled straight up into a sort of grid of more ‘solid’ clouds, and numerous pegasi in high-visibility vests quickly moved to manually guide the schooner into dock, where they also moored her in and the crew lowered the gangplank to the cloud dock with a sort of ‘pomf’ sound.

All in just a few minutes. Efficient.

“We are here to receive the schooner Marklar, escorting His Highness Prince Bronze Brave.” Declared a purple and gold armored pegasus officer as he and a unicorn wearing night blue and white robes indicative of his station as military artificer came up the gangplank, and Bronze snorted at the name he’d hastily christened the formerly unnamed ship with to get the reserve to launch it.

“Hey, I just realized...couldn’t Bronze have just warped us up here after Twi cast the cloudwalking spell on us?” Spike asked, and everypony looked to Bronze who snorted and chortled as his eyes spun.

“A-and where would the fun have been in that~?” Bronze asked with snicker. “Besides, you all wanted to ride in style when I asked you all yesterday.”

“You just asked if we’d like to ever fly on an airship, ya said nothin’ about seein’ Rainbow perform today, then ya’ll sorta swept us onto this here ship without a warnin’.” Applejack glowered at her stallion with a measure of amusement, a sentiment shared by everypony save Spike, who just scrunched his browless brows in confusion.

“But that...doesn’t make any sense!” Spike urged, and Bronze burst out laughing.

“Oh my gosh, dude! What fun is there in making sense?!” Bronze asked, and jolted as a spasm of pain wracked him, and he hissed for a moment before taking a cleansing breath. “Magister, please fit my flightless friends with the cloudwalking shoes and we’ll be on our way to the stadium.” ‘Dear gog, I felt that through the pain killers.’

[@]

“Surprise~!” Pinkie Pie shouted from her little hoof mirror as Pinka, freshly invigorated by a stimulant pill and a spell from Twilight, jumped and pronked around in imitation of her younger sister to everyone’s amusement, save the trio of Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Gilda who were taken off-guard when they’d just landed on the edge of Cloudsdale only for Pinka to pop out with Pinkie to surprise them and the others to all approach from around a street corner, beings Pinka and Pinkie’s Pinkie Senses told them where the thee were going to arrive. “Are ya surprised?! Are ya, are ya, are ya?!”

“Pinkie, they’re all shocked, I think they’re surprised.” Pinka calmly said after taking Pinkie’s mirror from her mouth.

“W-wha?! You’re wearing cloudwalking shoes, so you came up here by airship?” Rainbow asked in surprise, since airship fare was really expensive.

“Oh yes, Bronze was very sneaky with obtaining a ship from the Canterlot reserve or something and picking us up in the early morning when he knew you’d still be asleep.” Shampoo answered as she suspended herself on her hair, which she took to doing immediately upon realizing the clouds of the city didn’t dirty anything and that meant she could shamelessly be above everypony not flying and still have her hair clean and beautiful. The repelling magic she’d asked Twilight for still wasn’t finished yet, considering Twilight had changed the basis for it several times after numerous failures.

“Ah just wish he’d given us warnin’, kinda left Mac all alone with the chores when Ah was suddenly not in the kitchen and was on a ship headin’ here.” Applejack commented with a hint of annoyed amusement, getting Bronze to roll his eyes.

“So here we are to cheer you on, let any anxiety you have begone.” Zecora admitted for the group, all smiling at their stunned friend who looked speechless.

“Whoa~! Look who it is!” Rainbow bristled at the sudden new voice, and growled as she turned away from her bemused friends to glare at a trio of pegasus stallions all with their manes hiding their eyes who flew toward them. Gilda similarly growled as Fluttershy whimpered and hid behind her big and strong griffon friend. “If it isn’t Rainbow Crash, Klutzershy, and Gilzongas!” Rainbow snorted steam in anger, Shy tried to hide even more, and Gilda looked between livid, and flustered. “Where you been hen? Things’ve been boring without someone to stir things up.”

“Well, Droops, I’ve been with my friends. How about you three meatheads? Still trying to get into sports teams Hoops, Score and Dumb Bell?” Gilda demanded defensively and the three offensive stallions all shrugged noncommittally.

“Nah, we’ve taken jobs at the weather factory. Gotta pay the bills right?” Hoops, the tall one with the basketballs for marks informed. “So what’re you doing back Crash? Here for the competition I’ll bet.”

“We’d say good luck, but there’s no way a pony that got expelled from Flight School can ever hope to win!” The smallest with the hoofballs for marks barbed, before they all laughed among themselves, ignoring the great many glares being set at them by everyone as they flew away.

“See ya later Crash!” The one with a dumbbell for marks shouted as they left, making the three laugh as if he’d told a joke.

“Want me to pluck all their feathers?” Pinka angrily asked Rainbow with terrifying fury, before Zecora quickly moved to her and began massaging her head and neck. “Ow~ Zecora, what?”

“Calm. You do not have the energy to sustain such destructive emotions.” Zecora chided the pink mare, who huffed, but didn’t struggle to get away from her medical attendant’s attentions.

“I’m just about to! G! Why did those bozos call you Gilzongas?!” Rainbow demanded of her henfriend, who looked incredibly embarrassed.

“When we got older, and my wings kept getting bigger...well...pegasi just kept giving me looks. You moved away before it got to the point where I was being objectified for my huge wings. I got sick of it and moved back to Griffonstone, but the name stuck.” Gilda admitted with frustration. “But even back in Griffonstone, it was all the same. All toms saw was a hot piece of flank, nogrif saw more than my body.” Gilda weakly informed her marefriend.

“Well, this mare sees more.” Rainbow asserted before patting her henfriend on the back. “Look, I get ya G. I get a lot of looks too y’know.” Rainbow sympathized but with a cheeky grin that cheered Gilda up a bit, before looking back to her friends. “Look, I appreciate you all coming, but there’s still a few hours before the competition, so how about I give you all a tour of my hometown?” Rainbow offered excitedly, getting everyone to forget their anger and cheer on the decision.

[@]

“How can you drink that stuff?” Rainbow asked with a queasy expression and tone as Bronze lapped up liquid rainbow as if it was water.

“I don’t get what the big deal is.” Bronze commented as every single pegasus was cringing and gasping in awe intermittently as he drank more of the liquid hell that was pure essence of rainbows. Tasted like cinnamon red-hots, a favorite. Also his body was rapidly shifting into a tie-dye of colors as he drank, which he found incredibly cool.

“Dude~! You are hardcore!” Crowed one of the three jerks from before, who wore a white lab coat and a white safety helmet like all the factory’s crew and guests save Bronze and Spike due to their plus sizes.

“Look, you don’t know spicy until you’ve eaten a ripe ghost pepper raw on a bet.” Bronze stated blankly. “Those things were used to make weapons for a reason.”

“What’s a ghost pepper?” Asked a random pegasus, and Bronze let out a long-suffering sigh.

‘You’d think the academies would be quicker to announce all the new plants I gave them seeds for from the Svalbard Global Seed Vault.’ “A new dangerously hot pepper coming to a market near you, hopefully, within the next year or so.” Bronze blandly informed before snorting and popping his neck. “Well, we’ve been through the whole place I’m guessing, since you showed us both the general and seasonal departments.” Bronze considered to Rainbow, who nodded.

“Yeah, pretty much. It’s about time for the competition, so let’s head over to the stadium.” Rainbow decided even though there was still an hour before she had to register and another hour after that until the competition started at noon. She’d already taken her friends around the more notable areas of her hometown and then the weather factory. She was also still confused about Bronze demanding how they were all breathing so easily up here.

“Oh! Um...uh...Rainbow Dash. Would it be okay that, while we’re here and all, that is, if you don’t mind, um...if we go visit our parents?” Fluttershy suddenly mentioned, and Rainbow froze so hard in mid-air that she crashed to the soft cloud floor, and somewhere, the sounds of glass shattering happened at Rainbow having a sudden realization.

“...My parents don’t know I’m a Filly Fooler….”

Author's Notes:

Bum-bum-buuuuuuuum~!