That party was hard-core! Pinkie thought as she stumbled out of the barn. She almost ran into a tree on the way out of Sweet Apple Acres. Maybe a little too hard-core. She giggled to herself as she reminisced on the totally amazing, super-spectacular, absolutarificly awesome party. Vinyl Scratch and Octavia had played the most beautiful music at the party, alternating between wubs and strings. At one point, Vinyl had somehow broken a window, and Octavia had, for reasons unknown to everypony else there, found her way into the barn attic and tied a rope to one of the rafters so that she could, quote, unquote, 'fly like a pegasus'. AJ and Dash were caught making out behind a table by Apple Bloom, which made for funny entertainment for the rest of them. "Woo!" Pinkie breathed. "I can't wait for the next party!" She looked up into the sky at the mystifying moon. Princess Luna had done a wonderful job on this night. She had to remember to thank her later. And to top it off, things seemed to be back to normal.
As Pinkie trotted home, however, the strange things started to happen again. Entire buildings that were there just moments ago had vanished. Late-night stragglers trotting home appeared transparent, as Lyra and Bon Bon had before. Some of them even temporarily flickered out of existence. Pinkie Pie was quickly getting more and more nervous. This is getting scary. The pink mare thought. And then, as she was trotting along, she actually passed through one of the ponies! As she did so, she shrieked. "What is going on?" She cried. "Am I going crazy?" What was happening to the world that she knew and loved? Ponies disappearing before her very eyes, buildings vanishing behind her, it was all just too much. Tears welled up in the party mare's eyes, and she ran as fast as she could, going nowhere in particular, just wanting to run away from this strange, bad world, sobbing all the while. When the tears dried up and her vision cleared, she realized where she was going. Pinkie smiled slightly when she recognized the path to Fluttershy's cottage. But her eyes widened in horror when she saw that neither the cottage, nor the butter-cream pegasus were there. They, too, had vanished. Pinkie's face visibly sunk. Her mane became razor-sharp and framed her face like a picture. The tears found their way back into her eyes, and she openly cried. If Flutters is gone, then nothing matters anymore. Pinkamina told herself. She realized that she was hyperventilating. She looked quickly around at her surroundings. Other things were flickering in and out of existence. She couldn't take this. Pinkamina began to rapidly shake her head. "N- no.... No, no, no, no, no, NO, NO, NO, NO!" She fell onto the cold, cruel, uncaring ground beneath her and let loose a throat-ripping scream into the harsh night air. Her hysterics only got worse. The pink mare clenched her eyes shut and began to shudder in the freezing indifference of the air around her, still screaming to the night.
Suddenly, she heard a voice. "Oh my- Pinkie!" Is that... It can't be.... But lo and behold, there she was in all her splendid glory, Princess Luna of the Night. The Alicorn landed next to her and wrapped her forelegs around the heartbroken mare. "I'm so, so sorry Pinkie." She whispered. "I- I should have told you sooner." Pinkamina wiped away the tears in her eyes and stared quizzically at the dark blue pony holding her. Is she real? Pinkamina thought. She must be if I can still see and feel her.
"T- told me what?" The pink mare stammered. This was confusing enough as it was without a sudden confession from the Night Princess. Luna sighed.
"The truth, Pinkie, about you, and about the world that you live in." A tear slipped down Princess Luna's face. "The truth is, Pinkie, that the world you live in is a lie. It is nothing but an illusion. An illusion created by me."
"Wh- what?" Pinkamina cried incredulously.
"Every twenty-five years, this happens. You start to see the world for what it really is." The Princess explained. "And every twenty-five years, I have to come back and start everything over."
"B- but I'm twenty-eight!" Pinkamina exclaimed.
"I know. This time around, your belief in the illusion lasted longer than it normally did. I thought that it might last forever this time. But I was wrong. Today, the illusion started to crack, and I was late in coming for you. For that, I am deeply sorry."
"I- I don't get it. What do you mean by illusion?" Luna placed a hoof on the distraught mare's shoulder.
"Let me explain further. About five-thousand years ago, I was banished to the moon."
"Five-thousand years?" Luna held up a hoof, silencing the mare.
"Yes. Now, what my sister didn't recognize, all those ages ago, was that the sister she had so foolishly sent to the moon was the bearer of three of the six Elements of Harmony. Without me, Equestria was defenseless. The three elements that I held were Laughter, Kindness, and the most powerful, Magic. About three-thousand years ago, Discord broke free once more, and he murdered my sister. After that, the entire planet began to crumble. It is a dead world now. You see, Pinkie, we two are still stuck here on the moon." The terrain began to take on moon-like qualities around them.
"But... How am I here with you? What does any of this have to do with me?" Pinkamina's voice rose an octave with each question she posed.
"That was the other point that I intended to make." She whispered. "There was another thing that my sister was unaware of when I was banished. On the day that I was sent to the moon, I had just learned a surprising, scary fact about myself. On that day, I learned that I was pregnant."
"Wh- So... That means..." Pinkamina was unable to finish. Luna nodded anyway.
"You, Pinkamina Diane Pie, are my daughter."
"But I'm an Earth Pony." She cried.
"Are you sure?" Luna quipped. "Look again." Pinkamina gazed at her back, and just as the Princess had suggested, there were pegasus wings. She harbored no doubt, now, that if she reached up and felt her forehead, she would find a unicorn horn. "It was all part of the illusion." She said. "When I first turned the moon into a virtual Equestria, you had asked to be an Earth Pony because they were your favorite. And you got to chose each of the ponies you met along the way. I must say, you were very creative. Especially with the Twilight Sparkle character." Luna offered a sad smile. "But every once in a while, the spell I cast falters, and I have to start it up again. Occasionally, you add new ponies, but every time that we've done this, you never took any away."
"F- Fluttershy... She was... She was..." Pinkamina was finding it difficult to speak. "I loved her." She whispered. Princess Luna took Pinkamina's hoof.
"I know. And you can have her back. All you have to do is ask me to restart the spell, and you can go through all the magic of meeting your friends in, maybe in a different way than last time. You can be with Fluttershy again."
"Why?" The pink mare said darkly. "Why did you do it? Why did you dangle such a beautiful, wonderful thing in front of my face, only to take it away and start from scratch?" The Princess was taken aback by this recent development. Pinkie has never reacted like this before. Luna thought. Pinkamina continued. "This is wrong! It's torture! I loved Fluttershy! I loved my friends! I-" She stopped herself and began to cry once more.
"Pinkie. I'm sorry. But this is what you wanted. You asked me to do this for you. Now can't we get this over with so that you can be happy?"
"O- okay." She said weakly. I guess it's better than being on the moon. She told herself.
"Now Pinkie, before I do this, I need to know something. Do you want any new ponies this time around?"
Her mane started to regain it's cotton-candy quality as she nodded. "I want to meet this Discord. And I think Twilight should have a brother. And could he marry a princess?" Luna smiled and bowed her head, her horn starting to glow.
"It is done." She said.