Pinkie Clone 001 bounced happily into the Everfree Forest. While at first the myriad of dark shades - different to the ones she had grown used to - clogged up her limited senses, she soon began to chant, “Fun! Fun! Fun!” to herself. The trees ahead bent out of her way and the canopies seemed to open up, letting the sun in on this normally dreary place. Everything she saw glowed and sparkled with positivity, and it seemed like there wasn’t a shadow to be seen.
The reaching, grabbing branches she shook like offered hooves and the thorn-covered flowers she devoured without a hint of regret. “Yurmhy!” she exclaimed. She didn’t know how to describe the taste, but whatever her tongue was telling her, it was fun.
At the entrance, the clone finally vanished into the darkness between the trees, the hologram lighting up what it displayed to account for the Everfree’s unnatural shade. Twilight watched and took notes on everything the clone did. It had quickly left the beaten trail that lead into the forest, choosing - though perhaps she didn’t even think about it - instead to wander into the aimless depths of nigh-impenetrable thorns, trees and other plants that thickly blanketed the ground.
Twilight frowned, feeling concerned. “I was expecting her to have a better sense of direction than this, and I definitely wasn’t expecting her to eat something like a Rashroot.”
“Understand, my student,” Celestia began, “that these clones are not Pinkie Pie in any way save for appearance. Any skills or experience she has were not copied over when she made them. They have no sense of reason; they are nothing more than instinct.”
They watched as 001 bounced straight into a solid row of trees. The trunks were strangely intertwined, looping over one another as if they’d grown with the intent of blocking access to whatever lay behind them. The clone, of course, could have simply wandered around them and continued forward, but instead she spied the small gap between the trunks and stuffed her head through it. With a bit of wriggling and a loud crack, the Seeing Eye crystal splintered and fell to the floor along with the rest of the broken collar. Through its split vision the two observers watched in mild disbelief as Clone 001 pranced away into the unknown.
“Thirty minutes?” Twilight asked.
“And twenty seconds,” Celestia confirmed. “I was hoping for a longer lifespan, both for the clones themselves and the collars, though I suppose the latter haven’t been used for eons.” With a sigh she turned back to the cage. “Shall we release the next one?”
“Go right ahead,” Twilight replied. She looked over the myriad of notes she’d managed to squeeze out of the short timeframe and smiled. “Maybe we could use a strengthening spell to protect the collars?”
Celestia nodded as she brought the next one out. With a quick flash of magic the collar around its neck gained a soft, golden glow and the clone was placed upon its hooves. A quiet creak alerted the two of them to the cage door being opened. What was attempting to become 003 had been slowly opening the door behind their backs, and she looked at them with a face suited to someone who’d been caught red-hoofed.
“Back in the cage, please,” Celestia asked sternly.
The Pinkie Pie nodded and slightly closed the door, its eyes locked on the princess’.
“A little bit more?”
squeak
Celestia’s expression took a turn and she pointed her horn at the door. But before her levitation spell could apply any force 003 pushed it wide open, and before they knew what was happening the clone was speeding into the woods and out of sight.
“Well shit.”
Twilight looked panicked. “Ah! Th-that’s ok though, right? We can still track her position, can’t we?” she asked, looking between the princess and the path a few times.
The princess wore a plain old scowl of annoyance on her face. She hadn’t been bested like that in a long time. She paused for a moment to consider her options. She could have easily teleported after the fleeing clone and dragged it back, but the other option was just as viable; she projected a second holographic representation of what 003 was seeing alongside the one belonging to 002.
002 had seen all this happen and was now itching to be let loose, wriggling as hard as she could against the princess’ magical grip but getting nowhere. Her off-colour sister and the giant swan creature weren’t doing anything fun and she needed to be free. She could feel the energy coming off her trapped counterparts in waves as they each felt the same. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she was released and she leapt into the bushes and vines.
She bounced and cried happily through the leaves and the thick grass. She slid across patches of mud and swung through the vines, apologising to them in her own simple words whenever they tried to make her stay. She couldn’t stop yet, she wouldn’t stop. Not when there was so much to see and experience in this new world.
The forest was just as beautiful as everything else she’d seen, but one thing it really needed to fix was the quiet. Beyond her own hoofsies and the brushings of her mane whenever she graced against something, there was silence. There weren’t any ponies here to talk to or play with, nor were any of her sisters within hearing range. With a singular thought in mind 002 slowed to a stop, the first time she had done so by choice, and listened.
For a while there was nothing. Then, through the stillness came a faint pat… pat… pat off in the distance. Something of size with soft footfalls. 002’s face contorted into a look of sheer joy and surprise as the image of a giant teddy bear filled her mind. And so, abandoning her previous thought in favour of this new, funner one, she sped in the direction of the noise as fast as her legs could carry her.
Back at the cage, Twilight peered into 002’s hologram with a quizzical stare. Why had that one stopped moving for so long? The behaviour was unlike that of any other clone she’d seen so far. “Maybe she ran out of things to look at, or… something?” she mused to herself under her breath.
002 skid to a halt just shy of a clearing amongst the trees. She smelled something… odd. Different and potentially fun, but something caused her to hesitate, to take another whiff. The greens and blues of the Everfree were joined by a pool of red and 002 found herself inching backwards. Suddenly, this didn’t feel fun, this felt not-fun, something she couldn’t even bring herself to describe. But still, curiosity drove her to peer through to see what had been making the sound and her eyes went wide at the sight of a giant, red-maned… kitty? It was curled up for a nap with one of her sisters sleeping next to it. Its orange coat faintly shimmered in the sunlight, suggesting it had recently cleaned itself, and its strangely bulbous tail wrapped around its front to cradle its own head. It was unlike anything she’d ever seen, and 002 knew she wanted to play with it.
She boinked out into the open and the creature’s ears flicked. It opened one lazy eye to see what small, edible thing had dared to approach it and was surprised to find its vision full of pink. 002 stared back with a gigantic smile. She liked the look of this giant kitty, with its poofy mane and its giant, reddened paws…
What should Pinkie Pie do with the Manticore?