Dead on Arrival

"Okay, now let her down gently," Twilight commanded to her friends as she was double checking the spellbook. Applejack and Rainbow dash were lowering Fluttershy's body down on the Cutie Map, the exact centre of the pentagram she painted. Unfortunately -- while they were lowering her -- Applejack's hoof slipped under Fluttershy's head which sent her skull crashing down on the map, right on top of Arimaspi territory, causing a loud thump to reverberate throughout the throne room. Twilight looked up from her book to shoot a peeved look at Applejack.

"Sorry!" She excused; her face scrunched slightly in embarrassment.

Twilight sighed, "It's okay," and went back to reading.

The pentagram was located in the dome like throne room of Twilight's castle, acting as the circle encasing the pagan symbol; it was massive to say the least. The lines passed in-between the crystal thrones and painted over the slick diamond floors with blood. They collectively converged on the Cutie Map, trapping it in a pentagon with Fluttershy's corpse laying on her back on the centre with her head pointed to the centre of the two bottom spikes of the star. Her innards, chest, leg, and belly were sewn back into their proper places by Rarity's handiwork, much to her displeasure. There were two empty buckets of blood in the corner by the door, but Twilight opted instead to call it 'Deep Crimson' paint.

"Is this good?" Rainbow asked. The initial shock of seeing her friend in such a state has long ago worn off, as it has for everypony else. Twilight looked up from her book and inspected the arrangement; she noticed that it wasn't good.

"No, she's upside down," Her horn lit up and encased Fluttershy in purple sparkles, lifting her off the ground and spinning her 180 degrees to the proper position, and plopped her onto the cold hard crystal with a thump. "Unless we want to summon every single monster trapped in all of tartarus, the pentagram has to be right side up," she warned.

"Aight," Applejack acknowledged.

"Okay, we're almost ready to begin the ritual," Twilight announced. She picked up her book with her magic and flipped the pages in her book until she came to a page entirely covered in Latin chants. She dropped her open copy of 'Supernaturals' on the table next to Fluttershy's winking face; a shiver ran down her spine. Even though they got used to the overpowering stench of vanilla and looking at her insides before Rarity sewed it back together, that wink still gave Twilight the chills. Rarity refused to touch it when she was sewing her up, so it just kept staring at any unfortunate soul to look upon it. "Okay everypony, stand on a point in the pentagram," She commanded. Twilight trotted to the top spike of the controversial symbol while Applejack and Rainbow Dash took the bottom two with Rarity and Pinkie Pie taking the sides.

"Uh, Twilight? This seems pretty weird," Rainbow expressed with skeptic, nervous eyes. "I mean, I'm not nervous or anything, but this seems a little ... "

"Anti-Celestial?" Twilight finished her sentence. "Don't worry, it's all perfectly natural," she reassured. Twilight looked around for a spare bucket of blood. Finding none, she called out, "Spi-ike?" she asked in a sing-song voice, "Can you bring in some more blood?" she shouted out the door. Everypony else's eyes shot open in surprise.

"You mean that wasn't paint?" Applejack asked, but this question went ignored by Twilight.

Spike walked in through the massive doors carrying two full buckets of turkey blood. They had a huge surplus in the dumpster, so Spike just capitalized on that. "Here you go!" He dropped the buckets on the floor next to the Cutie Map, clanking and spattering a few drops on the floor.

"Perfect!" Twilight trotted to the buckets of blood and dipped her hoof in the chunky crimson stew with an excited smile. "We didn't need this much, but thanks anyway!" She thanked her faithful servant kindly. She pulled her hoof out of the bucket -- dripping in maroon red blood -- and brought it to the corpse's face.

She stuck her tongue out and her eye squinted in concentration as she brought it down on her forehead, being extremely careful not to mess it up. She drew an 8 and a = sign directly right of it. After that, she crudely painted a capital D, and to finish, a ~.

"Eight equals D squiggle-line?" Asked Rarity.

"Yes! It's an ancient equation meaning that infinity equals the relative dimension, sort of."

"Sort of?"

"Sort of."

"Uh, why's it on her forehead?" Rainbow asked.

"The book said so, now let's get this ritual started!" Twilight cheered. She trotted back to her point on the star -- her right hoof leaving behind a trail of blood as she trotted -- and announced: "Okay, everypony! Repeat after me! Spike, get out of here!"

"Okay!" Spike jogged out of the room quickly to leave the mares to their questionable activities.

"Alright! Repeat after me!" Twilight levitated the book from the table and read the chant. "42 est decorus."

"42 est decorus."

"42 est frigidulus."

"42 est frigidulus."

"Educ retro nos amicus Fluttershy."

"Educ retro nos amicus Fluttershy." The chant was finished. Twilight looked around the room, and to Fluttershy. She felt a little bit frustrated when nothing happened.

"What?! Nothing happe-" Twilight's complaint was interrupted by Pinkie.

"Look!" Pinkie pointed her hoof to the ceiling roots. Just under the centre of it was a familiar twinkle, with the accompanying shadowy figure staring through; the same one that guided them through the hallways of the other dimension straight to Fluttershy's corpse. As she was pointing, the crystal floor started rumbling and her hoof shook in the air. She reconnected it to the floor to regain her balance, yet there was none to gain on the shifting diamond.

"What's happening?!" Rarity cried. The rumbling continued developing in strength to an incredible degree. Everypony was slipping and sliding across the floor with frightened faces as the earthquake grew in power. Then, from the centre of room, the pentagon surrounding the Cutie Map started splitting into a trench. Groaning and cracking, seemingly tearing apart from the inside. The trench grew into an abyss in a matter of seconds, the great divide forcing and cracking itself into existence from the bowels of the earth. Cracks of diamond jutting around it in crags, it created a maw of shattered gemstones around the Cutie Map. Once the crack grew about 10 feet in length, the rumbling ceased, leaving 5 shaken mares to recover from the incredible earthquake that created the crystal rift.

"I-is it over?" Rainbow squeaked fearfully. From the depths of the great divide surrounding the howl of wind.

"I don't know," Twilight cocked her head in curious fear after she said this, and trotted to the dark abyss cautiously. The edges of the divide were slightly illuminated with a pure white glow as they were growing in their brightness gradually. Twilight peeked her eyes over the cliff on one of the vertices and was startled as a pure white tentacle of what looked like a tunnel of rushing air screamed its way up the trench with a furious volition.

"Yaa!" Twilight yelped. She jumped back as quick as she could -- landing on her haunches roughly 4 feet from the cliff -- and just in time. The squiggling pillar of pearl white air blasted out of the trench with a loud screech, akin to a hawk's cry, accompanied by 4 other pillars of the same, all converging on the twinkle in the air, latching onto it as if they were magnetic. The ponies were awestruck, their mouths gaping and mane blown back from the force of this awesome power rushing into the guiding light. To the amazement of everypony, the twinkle grew. Cracking and spider-webbing like breaking glass. The spark grew in size. The shadowy figure became clearly visible now, and it took form into some kind of pony. It was a wobbly, shifting image, but it was still recognizable. As the very air itself cracked and fractured, the shadow pony was clear as crystal.

"Fluttershy!?" Twilight shouted in surprise through the cries of the wind, her mane blowing wildly as the ribbons of light pulsed into the twinkle. The figure seemed to recognize that name. It turned its head to Twilight and waved enthusiastically. The shimmering cracks didn't look like they could take much more before the whole facade crumbled, and that's when they did. The twinkling around the shadow erupted into a shower of sparks, freeing the shadow out of its cage. The glittering shrapnel seemed to dissolve in midair, leaving only an ominous ghost floating near the ceiling. The winds stopped flowing out of the trench and instead they swirled around, seemingly searching for something. The ponies gawked at the display, craning their necks to the ceiling with their rumps plopped firmly to the ground.

One of the snakes of light snaked to a stop near the ghost, seemingly sniffing it. The shadow cowered in fear. Bringing its hooves up to its face and swung in its hind legs to its tummy, curling into a ball. That didn't stop the pillar from its job. It latched itself onto her skull, snapping it out of the fetal position. The ghost of Fluttershy flailed her entire body, trying to dislodge the snake from her head with her hooves, yet it was fruitless. Her hooves just passed through it as if they were nothing. The other ribbons of wind locked onto the first one's position, snapping their 'heads' to the ghost. Two ribbons latched themselves onto her front hooves and tugged them tightly outwards. Fluttershy struggled even harder now. Kicking furiously at the two ribbons locking onto her hind legs. They didn't even flinch as the shadowy hooves passed through them harmlessly. They latched onto them with ease, pulling Fluttershy's ghost tight in opposite directions. As if she were just about to be drawn and quartered.

The other ends of the tentacles had no trouble detecting her bodily form. The tentacles connected to their respective limbs like magnets snapping to iron; locking tightly into place. The one connected to her head split into three at its tail end and snapped to her eyes and mouth. The closed eye shot open in a flash as the snake of light connected to it. Fluttershy's corpse slowly lifted off the ground, pulled up like a puppet by its strings. Darkness started flowing through the ribbons of light like a pipe pumping oil while the ghost seemed to shrink in the air. As the darkness flowed and Flutterghost shrunk, the stitches Rarity used to seal up Fluttershy dissolved as if a wave of healing were passing over her, vaporizing any trace of damage she had in her previous life. The suggestive markings on her teats vanished as the wave passed through her body, as well. The ghost was rapidly shrivelling up as the snakes of light gorged themselves furiously. After a few moments the ghost was totally dissolved, pumped back into her body by the snakes, merging into one as they finished. The corpse was still unmoving, dead.

The ribbons of life lowered Fluttershy back down to the crystal table softly. They unhooked themselves from her appendages and snaked to the respective corners they came from, the centre of their merge hovering directly over Fluttershy's heart. The ribbons flowed back into the abyss much more peacefully this time, like a peaceful river flowing downstream, causing their merge to drop down on her chest, urging the body alive. The ground shifted and rumbled back to its original form once the ribbons left, leaving almost no trace of the awesome event, except a gasping Fluttershy.

Fluttershy laid on the cold hard map, panting for several minutes while the entire group just stared at her, eyes bugged wide and jaws practically hitting the floor. Fluttershy stopped panting after she finally got her bearings and sat up on the map, looking at her hooves and body curiously and with an incredible sense of joy. Her gaze shifted to her teats when she noticed the marks she made during her 'happy time' were gone.

She sighed in relief that such incriminating evidence was gone. Thinking about her pets made her remember something crucial. She gasped again. "My animals!" she screamed in utter terror, her eyes exploded in shock and her smile of joy all but gone, replaced by a face of pure terror. She shot off the table and bolted out the door as fast as she could to her cottage, pumping her wings as hard as they could go, leaving the awestruck ponies to themselves, still staring at the table.

Spike was walking back to the throne room to ask if the ritual was a success when he saw Fluttershy bolting down the halls at a speed that would give the Wonderbolts a run for their money.

"Fluttershy?!" He asked in surprise.

"NO TIME!" The panicked pegasus yelled as she barged right past him, knocking him off his feet and onto his rump.

"Oof!" Spike grunted as he was knocked to the floor. Fluttershy squeaked as she slid open the front doors and bolted out to her pets. Spike jogged to the throne room to find it exactly the way it was before the ritual. Even the pentagram was missing. He saw Twilight gawking at the cutie map and asked, "Was that really Fluttershy?!"

"Uhuh" She mumbled in response, not even turning her head.

"Why does she have a dick on her forehead?"

Twilight smiled sheepishly.