Author's Note
Originally intended for practice a friend pitched this idea and helped me work on it. Spent a good few hours typing this, after I was done I basically said, "screw it let's publish it." Only looked it over once when I was finishing it up.
Needless to say I have zero regrets at how silly I tried to make this while still keeping it unique in its own way.
Well then.... enjOY???
....
The sound of crickets filled the night and the gentle breeze of the wind passed by through a small little town in the middle of who knows where.
A single figure, one pegasus mare, poked her head out of a nearby alley and looked along the large line of homes and their dimmed out windows for any signs of life or curious eyes on what she was about to do that very night.
When Fluttershy was greeted with nothing but the sound of crickets doing their cricket thing, she quietly and very silently floated her way out of her hiding place and made a gentle beeline for her friends ‘new home’.
It’d been four days since she’d last seen the others and joined Starlight’s little army of equalist fighters. And since those past four days, every morning she’d have to watch as her poor poor companions marched in and out of that shed they’d been locked up in since their arrival, only to be asked the same question over and over again by Starlight if they were finally willing to accept her fabulous, yet flawed philosophy.
In all honesty it’d been quite of a bother. Seeing her friends so tired like that, worried the pegasus mare so much that she couldn’t help but see how they were doing tonight. Especially since tonight was the only time she’d be able to, what with Starlight taking extra measures the first three days to make sure no one was acting out of turn.
It didn’t take long for Fluttershy to reach the shed. With three knocks on the door, Fluttershy nervously looked around, making sure no one had seen her before she heard the door open. And before she could even turn her head to greet her compadres with a warm smile, she felt four different hooves wrap themselves around her and drag her in.
A loud thunk followed and then, the ironic yet silent sound of a wooden door closing soon came next.
Fluttershy found herself laying on the cold stone floor that her friends now occupied seconds after her composure regained.
Needless to say her five friends did not look amused.
“Still?!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed with more gusto than should’ve been necessary for a captive.
“W-Well she isn’t exactly making it easy to get near them” Fluttershy said silently in response.
“But it’s been four days Flutter! Four! I can’t stand being in this cramped up space anymore!” Dash stated with an angry snort as she began prancing around the cramped space in an effort to calm her nerves.
“Now Rainbow Dash, I’m sure our dear Fluttershy is doing everything she can to get us back our cutie marks, no need to be so rash” Rarity said placatingly as she moved over to the meek pegasus and gently wrapped a foreleg around her friend’s withers.
“Yeah but-”
“Shhhh!” Twilight hushed admonishingly. “If you’re too loud Starlight could come in here and everything Fluttershy’s been working for could be ruined! Watch your volume!” She shout-whispered.
“Uh sugar” Applejack called from her little corner near a broomstick. A broomstick she now used to busy herself in fixing up the crazy amount of cobwebs that threatened to ruin this very corner’s image.
Twilight snapped her attention right over to Applejack right on the dime, eye twitching from the lack of sleep she’d had in the past two days, and said in a very squeaky yet hushed voice:”...........wHaT?”
Pinkie’s hoof gently tapped Twilight’s muzzle as if it had just suddenly popped out of the ground like a plant, seconds later said hoof’s owner’s head slowly popped out of the ground as well, despite it being made purely of stone and said one thing to Twilight. “Calm down.”
Twilight’s eye twitched again. Now that Fluttershy got a good look at her, the recent alicorn’s appearance didn’t look that well in comparison to the rest of her friends. Perhaps four days of solitary confinement, lack of food, and constantly being asked the same annoying question every four hours of every day was starting to weigh in on them and she hadn’t noticed.
“Okay” Twilight simply said, eye twitching again, before she laid flat on her stomach and stared at the ceiling like it would reveal all of life’s secrets to her and give her a plan to escape this madness that was a shed.
For a good few minutes no one said a word.
The clip-clop of Rainbow Dash’s hooves still irritatingly prancing about the ground, as a means to find someway to get rid of all this energy she’d been building up the last four days were starting to get to her. Applejack was still trying to pass the time with those infernal cobwebs that just refused to go. Maybe it was a way of hers to ignore the pulsing of her equal mark, till she got her cutie mark back, either way it didn’t seem to be helping her that much as every time she failed she simply threw said broom away and sat her plot down on the ground grumbling about how this place needed a fixin’ and "Joe" the broomstick was doing nothing to make her job easier.
Rarity was probably the most sane out of anyone still being her perfect self. Except she wasn’t complaining that much about the dirt of the shed. Nor the dust, nor the fact that her eyeliner was starting to fade, in fact now that Fluttershy looked, Rarity’s equality sign was pulsing justa smidget.
The pegasus mare frowned.
Her eyes were soon drawn to the sound of a pony saying “Shhh Mr. Wacky” over and over again as she saw Pinkie now perfectly balanced on Twilight’s back, gently stroking her mane in an attempt to calm her down and stop the “twitcher twitches of Mr.Wacky Taffy.”
A second of awkward silence passed.
Fluttershy had spent some time in the past few days thinking up multiple ways she could help her friends. And now that she was actually seeing them, boy did they need it.
“U-um...girls.”
The response was impeccable. She nervously gulped as five set of desperate and annoyed eyes looked at her. Taking courage, Fluttershy said, “I think I have a solution to our problem.”
Rainbow Dash instantly pounced, “What?! What is it?! Tell me!”
“Take it easy, now Rainbow Dash” Rarity pushed. “Go on dear” she stated, once the cyan pegasus was a good distance back.
“Um, well. I was thinking that, maybe we should...try playing dead to trick Starlight?” she suggested.
No reply.
Fluttershy continued, bracing herself. “Maybe if we tricked her into thinking you five were dead, oh not literally! I mean, um...just acting it out, she might feel bad enough and um” her hoof gently traced a circle on the ground, “...give you your cutie marks back” she said slightly losing her confidence halfway.
Again, no reply.
Fluttershy’s hoof continued to trace circles on the ground as she waited for her friends responses. Surely this idea wasn’t that bad right? She wondered. I mean...it could work right?
“FLUTTERSHY!” Pinkie screamed, making the pegasus jump. A tackle proceeded next, followed by bear hugging strength before the earth pony finally let the poor mare breath. “That’s genius!” Pinkie sang with joy, that is till her equal sign pulsed once again and made her mellow once more.
The pegasus smiled at the comment, “Thank you” she said gently, before turning her attention towards the others. “And what do you guys think, if you don’t mind me asking?”
Twilight, Rarity, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack all looked at each other first, then back at Fluttershy, then back again at each other.
All four smiled, nodding in agreement. “Good idea.” They all said in agreement, smiling just enough before their equality signs once again pulsed and seeped the joy out of them.
Fluttershy smiled in due return, glad they were in agreement. However seeing her friends marks pulse only steeled her with confidence. “Alright then, tomorrow when Starlight asks you guys to come out, that’s when you play dead. You don’t.” She said as firmly as she could.
“Wait.” Twilight said, now slowly regaining her senses from the all seeing ceiling. “What if she thinks we’re trying to trick her again?”
The confidence the yellow pegasus had been building slightly faltered at this statement. “Oh...right. I didn’t think of that” she said with her ears drooping.
“Buuuuut, don’t you know any spells that could help us with this?” Pinkie countered popping up beside Twilight.
The alicorn paused. “Well...yes” she said now feeling a small grin forming on her lips, but soon falling as she realized something. “But without my cutie mark I don’t think it’ll be strong enough to give us the effect we’re looking for.”
“So we’ll fake it!” Rainbow Dash stated with confidence. “I mean we are pretending to be dead here. It’s not like we’ll need a spell that will actually make it real. Besides we’ve got the rest of the night. If we start practicing now we’ll have her fooled by tomorrow, especially if you consider how tired we’ll be in the morning.”
Silence.
All eyes were on their athlete friend.
Dash looked around casually with a confused look. “What?”
“Oh uh, nothing dear it’s just um” Rarity said twirling her hoof as she searched for a way to put this delicately.
“We don’t usually hear yah speaking well...yah know, you don’t usually-”
“You don’t think Dash” Pinkie finished for Applejack, smiling like an idiot.
Silence.
“....”
“....”
“...”
“...”
“...”
“Fair point.”
The plan was set, everything was in motion. Now all they had to do was execute it, Fluttershy thought that fateful morning as Starlight came to pick her up and gather every other pony so they could check to see if their new friends had accepted their new way of life.
The trot to the shed had taken longer than usual, the yellow pegasus thought as she followed beside Starlight and the rest of the town’s members followed behind her.
It’s almost like something doesn’t feel right about all of this, thought Fluttershy. But of course not, that simply wasn’t the case. After all she’d been there with her friends when they’d each acted out their own part for this fake/ not-so-real death scene almost all of the night.
That’s right, Fluttershy reasoned. I’m just being silly, I’m sure the girls will-
“AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!” came a loud scream from within the shed.
A scream so loud that Fluttershy’s eyes widened with terror and sent a chill through her spine. A scream so loud it made Double Diamond fall on his rump and made Starlight’s mane become frizzled from the mere sound waves that bombarded their ears.
“What was that?!” Starlight asked in what was most likely a mixture of confusion and fear. That was the loudest and most fear filling scream she’d ever heard.
But before Fluttershy or anyone else could say another word as they all looked around for the source of the sound, Party Favor alone, was the only pony who noticed the glowing light coming right from the shed’s windows.
“Starlight, look!” he instructed with fear in his voice.
Immediately the entire town turned their attention to said glowing light, and in an instant the look of shock and confusion that draped Starlight’s face was immediately replaced with anger and determination.
Instantly she charged off in the direction of Fluttershy’s friends, taking off with a mighty gait, and instantly soon enough her followers joined her, leaving Fluttershy in their wake.
The element of kindness, still greatly confused and terrified from hearing Pinkie’s loud, startling cry as far as the passing eye could tell, managed to snap herself out of it as she saw Starlight and the others quickly approaching the shed.
In an instant fear and panic struck Fluttershy like a lightning bolt, and before she even realized what she was doing, the pegasus had taken off and sped in the direction of her friends so quickly that even Rainbow Dash would’ve been impressed had she laid eyes on such a sight.
What’s going on? Fluttershy wondered as she began passing pony after pony in her attempt to catch up to Starlight.
This wasn’t a part of the plan, we were supposed to wait for Starlight to call them out, then they’d start faking. Are they alright? Oh I hope nothing happened to them!
But just as Fluttershy was about to reach Starlight and tell her to stop before it was too late.
And just as Starlight was only a good few feet away from the shed's distance.
And just as Party Favor hyperventilating into a balloon, (but in reality he was trying to blow one up to calm his nerves), but failed drastically. The most incredible thing happened that will ever go down in Equestrian history.
The shed.
Blew up.
Boom! ~Whisshhh~ came the wind.
Everyone froze.
When Fluttershy opened her eyes again, she could see a shield of magical aura had formed around them all to protect each and every pony from the blast.
Starlight’s horn was lit, and glowing with ab odd amount of intensity for a brief few seconds as the smoke cleared and debris fell from the sky.
In a matter of seconds the aura field faded, and everypony was now looking in the direction of what used to be Starlight’s shed or 'the jail', as they called it.
A few coughs were uttered here and there, some stuttered and mumbled incomprehensive words, unable to fathom what on earth had just happened and why the shed had decided to turn itself into its own natural firework. Starlight stood there, staring in what one could only assume was mind numbing shock and horror.
Fluttershy who now slowly landed beside her, stood staring with mouth wide open, eyes the size of pinpricks, and in the distance Party Favor could still be heard hyperventilating into his balloon for comfort.
“T-They...They went boom?” one of the ponies from the town said, as if it weren’t obvious enough that a group of ponies had indeed exploded.
“Y..Yeah....I guess they did” Double Diamond said silently addressing K.O. the one who had made the statement stared with a rather disappointing look on his face as they all looked on towards the crater.
Silence fell. Then, that silence was soon broken by the sounds of a mare’s sniffling.
Instantly every pair of eyes turned to focus their attention on Fluttershy, and almost instantly every pony regretted looking in the first place.
Wings dropped in a docile, defenseless manner, tears pouring out of her eyes, mane almost covering her face, Fluttershy sat on the ground, ignoring the thunks and thwacks of wood as she stared at the giant crater that used to be the occupied space of her friends.
“No...” she whispered sadly, through a broken voice. “T-This w-w-wasn’t a part of the plan...”
“Plan?” Starlight said, she meant to shout when her brain registered the word, but instead it came out like a dying cat gagging on a furrball.
“What plan?” she asked again failing to gather her voice from the sheer shock she had received, but when Fluttershy didn’t reply and continued to sniffle and whimper, the unicorn instantly felt a knot curl itself thrice within her stomach.
“Fluttershy. What, plan?” she insisted once more, hoping that this little charade was all a part of some foolish joke.
Again Fluttershy didn’t reply, she was too busy wallowing in sorrow to make a proper response.
Starlight suddenly felt ill. Her chest immediately started to hurt. Quickly her eyes glanced back to the smoky crater that was slowing starting to dissipate hoping beyond hope that somehow, someway she’d see sight of those idiots hiding in the crater and trying to get a peek, just a glimpse, to see if their trick had worked.
But after a full minute and no one came out, she felt woozy almost instantly.
“Fluttershy!” she said desperately. The pegasus in question felt a gentle yet sharp tug left her face up to Starlight’s level.
The regret Starlight felt was instantaneous. “Please tell me this is just some part of a plan. Please, please, please!” she begged.
But when Fluttershy tried to speak, and Starlight noticed the quick flash of what she perceived as anger in her eyes, the unicorn quickly backed away towards the crater with shock and fear. Immediately she looked to her followers for support, but not a pony would look at her.
Double Diamond even backed away from their leader and moved to comfort the crying Fluttershy, in turn.
“No no no no”, This can’t be happening! Turning to face the crater Starlight’s horn glowed and in a matter of seconds the area was cleared of all debris and dust, her eyes scanning frantically for any signs of life.
Luckily for Starlight, her eyes did find life...whether it was alive though was the question.
In said crater, there were five mares laid every which way. Their pelts a mess, their manes even messier.
Rainbow Dash somehow and strangely enough had half her body stuck quite deeply into the ground. How that was possible, nopony bothered to ask, even more so in this situation. Applejack’s face was covered by her stetson, and in her grasp....the broom she’d been using for who knows how long.
Pinkie Pie, oddly enough as it was, was balanced on a barrel, part of collapsed wall, and a straw one on top of the other, legs pointed every which what and tongue sticking out in the most dramatic of fashions.
Twilight...Twilight was twitching.
And Rarity was covered in dirt. The look of horror on her face alone even in death seemed several times worse than the explosion that most likely spelled their end. The horrible thing was however, Starlight couldn’t tell what disturbed her about Rarity’s face more.
The fact she had managed to pull off such a straining look, because of the explosion, or the fact that it could’ve been the dirt all in her mane and coat that made her give off such a disgusted look.
Needless to say, Starlight began to sweat.
Her ears perked up when she heard the hoofsteps of the others approaching along with a few sniffs here, and a few sniffs there.
Teleporting on instinct, Starlight was in the crater with the ‘possibly’ dead mares and frantically trying to wake them up. “Hey! Hey!” she called to Pinkie who was too high up to reach.
“Wake up!” she called.
The only response she got from the former party planner was the unsteady wiggle of her already unstable resting place.
Twilight was next. Starlight poked the mare several times with her hoof, but each and every time she did, the former princess of magic, twitched just a bit more. By the seventh prode, Starlight wasn’t sure if Twilight was having a seizure or was actually faking this.
The moment she tried an eighth time however, the princess stopped moving altogether and that alone made Starlight back away full of paranoia.
Applejack just wouldn’t budge. Nor would she let go off that broomstick either. Starlight just decided to leave her to rest in peace with her new faithful friend, Broomstick Joe, which had been hastily scratched on the wooden handle.
Rarity was too much of a lost cause for Starlight. The reaction on her face made her jaw hurt. Finally, there was Rainbow Dash. The mare imbedded in the ground.
When Starlight reached her, the sound of gasps from above caught her attention and she was met with the faces of her followers and a really saddened Fluttershy.
There’s that knot in my gut again, Starlight thought. “I...I don’t think there’s anything I can do for them” she said, unaware for a brief second that Dash’s leg twitched while everyone's attention was focused on Starlight.
Silence followed. No pony said a word, aside from the sniff sniff there and sniff sniff here, the depressed feeling caught on with everyone.
After a few more seconds of silence Starlight cleared her throat awkwardly and said “Moody Tim.”
An old stallion with a dusty looking pelt, and white as whiskers, made his way to the front of the crater. “Eyup” he casually said looking in at the five bodies and their leader.
“Do you still have those caskets....” -moment of silence- “I think we’ll need to set up a funeral for these five.”
“What time ya want it?” Moody asked, completely ignoring the fact that Fluttershy was starting to feel a bit hurt being right beside him and his mood etc.
“Um...” Starlight looked at her hoof and realized she wasn’t wearing a watch. “Now, if you please.”
Moody Tim merely nodded his head, and slowly yet painfully made his way towards the crater to measure the five new bodies as the town’s newly designated gravekeeper, despite him being a former model for craftsmanship.
“Ya mind?” he said to the townsfolk while he rummaged in his saddlebags for his measuring tape. “I got work to do.”
Everypony awkwardly shifted away from the crater and Starlight soon followed after.
“Kh- Ahem. We are...gathered here today, to honor these five mares who died from a...” a bead of sweat trickled down Starlight’s neck. “Rather sudden and spontaneous explosion, that I in no way, shape or form, ever expected to happen given the-”
“Starlight” Double Diamond interrupted.
The mare cocked him a look with a raised brow. “I don’t think now is the time for that” he suggested, pointing to the sullen look Fluttershy was displaying just beside a group of townsfolk that had come to comfort her.
“Right” she said silently.
“As I was saying, we didn’t know Princess Twilight for long. And sure, she and her friends did save Equestria many...many times. And yes, maybe just maybe I overreacted a bit when I said we should you know...” -Starlight coughed into a hoof to clear her throat- “Lock them up and refuse them their rights to food, water....and a bathroom. But, I mean...if you think about it-”
“Can we wrap this up anytime soon” Moody Tim asked grumpily. “It’s only 8 a.m. and Ah still need me beautifying sleep.” He said with a yawn.
Fluttershy’s blubbering was gracefully ignored.
“Ahem...right. And so it is with a heavy heart, that we bury these five great mares, Diamond if you would please remove the covers.”
“Right of course” he said with a small nod.
With the covers removed, five caskets were now revealed. Each especially made for the five mares per Fluttershy’s request, each holding their cutie marks. Each unique in their own way.
Removing Dash from the ground had proven harden than anyone thought, so...they had to cut around her and pull her out along with a chunk of dirt. Her casket stood as tall as she did, if you add the extra three feet factored in due to the excess dirt, that went all the way from her shoulders to just above her flanks.
Applejack had to have a side casket, just like a motorcycle with a sidecar, especially made for the broom stuck firmly in her hoof. Her cutie mark was emblazoned with an actual apple imbedded into the wood.
Rarity’s face was covered with silk curtains, Fluttershy said she would’ve liked it that way. And she was given a casket with colors that now matched her not so pure white fur, and complimented her messy mane.
Pinkie’s casket was made out of candy. Hard candy actually. When asked why candy, Fluttershy had no real response. They even went as far as to enchant the candy so that it would last forever, even after they buried the exuberant mare.
Twilight’s was just a regular casket. A plain normal one, that was enamored with her cutie mark, more with a dazzling touch than the others since well, she was royalty. And you had to give royalty where it was due.
There were also fourteen different kinds of books buried in there. Each one involving magic, and each one involving how to stay alive when being buried alive.
No one really understood why a dead pony needed books, but no one questioned it since it was Fluttershy’s request.
Starlight looked into each casket of each hero that had saved Equestria more times then she could remember every time she read the papers. She looked at their faces, the their hooves had been crossed over one another to make it more respectable. The decency they'd made by paying extra to have the caskets refurnished, fitted and made very comfortable for each and every one of them.
It was just like a real funeral. They even had their graves dug out. Yet why did all of this feel so...strange to Starlight. Was it guilt? Did she feel bad for something she had absolutely no hoof in playing? Was she possibly realizing her mistakes in forcing ponies to except her way of thinking?...No, no that couldn't be it.
“And so....” Starlight said as she began to wrap everything up after talking for what felt like hours. “We say goodbye to these five....” her eyes glanced back over to the five awkwardly lifeless mares, before she felt another knot buckle over in her stomach.
“Starlight” Double Diamond’s voice called for the twelfth time. The unicorn snapped out of it and looked up, with a bit of a start.
“You alright?” he asked with some concern as he too looked at the five unmoving mares and their somewhat beautiful expressions no matter how awkward each one made you feel.
And boy did they make you feel awkward. Double Diamond still found himself questioning, even now, just how long was Pinkie’s tongue anyway?
Meanwhile, Starlight didn’t say anything for a while.
After a few seconds of strained silence she looked back at all her townsfolk, looked back at Twilight and the others, along with their glimmering...beauty? then looked at Fluttershy and said with a slight break in her voice.
“We say goodbye to these five mares today. They were good mares and didn’t deserve this...and I’m sorry.” Silence filled the area at Starlight’s heartfelt words. That knot in her stomach doubled as she realized that this really wasn’t a joke, and that because of her own thoughtlessness, four- five mares had just suddenly died due to some unknown spontaneous combustion of random energy.
No one said a word, especially not so as Fluttershy began tearing up once more and her sniffles could be heard growing louder.
For a few more seconds, two at most, Starlight didn’t say a word. Nopony did. All of them were either too busy looking away and feeling horribly bad about all of this or too busy looking at their own hooves to bother to look up.
“Alright y’all...This service is over.” Moody Tim’s voice said. He’d been making the changes for these caskets for the past six hours, and only had thirty minutes of sleep before being awoken again, and sitting here getting all moody feely when he needed his "beautifying sleep", as he called it wasn’t gonna help him get rid of the wrinkles losing his cutie mark had given him. By jove he was the same age as Party Favor!
With those words said Starlight turned and helped Moody Tim prep the caskets for burial, ignoring his grumbly grumbles the entire time. And as she did so, prepping for the five’s burial, from the corner of her eye she saw Fluttershy run off, tears streaming from her eyes.
It was late at night, here in Our Town. After a lot of though, and some deep reflection, Starlight had decided the next day she might reveal to everypony that she’d been lying about taking her own cutie mark. Heck maybe she’d even give them all back...after all if this had happened under her watch who’s say much worse couldn’t come out of this anyway.
Maybe if they had their cutie marks they could’ve survived Starlight thought as she trotted her way towards the five’s grave burial. Maybe I went a bit overboard and too far...but how was I supposed to know a gas leak could be sparked by spark of magical aura! With grit teeth and frustration the mare sighed.
But that sigh soon came to a stop when she noticed somepony calling her name. Starlight looked up and froze instantly.
Her gaze dropped and she looked away immediately on daring to stare at this mare’s hooves before offering an awkward smile. “H-Hey Fluttershy.”
Fluttershy looked up at Starlight with puffy red eyes. She merely offered a broken smile at the loss of her friends and stared at the freshly dug dirt that had been placed on their caskets hours ago.
Starlight moved towards the tombstones, and then just...sat down...keeping a good distance between herself and Fluttershy.
Why am I sitting here? She probably hates me. I mean...I am the cause of this aren’t I? Starlight thought with a deepening frown. A wince came to her face when she felt the pain in her chest and the knot in her stomach double.
“Are you alright?” Fluttershy’s voice asked.
Starlight’s ears perked up in alarm. “W-What?”
Fluttershy’s smile faltered as her mane felt slightly in front of her eyes. “I...I said are you okay?”
Confusion dawned on Starlight’s face. Why is she being so nice to me? Didn’t she just lose her best friends? Shouldn’t she be mad at me?
“I- I’m fine.” Starlight said nervously, a chill travelled through her coat, tickling her spine, and causing the bristles of her withers to stand on end.
“Oh...that’s good” Fluttershy said. Her attention returned towards, her friends tombstones.
Starlight’s nerves didn’t die immediately. She merely, nodded silently and turned back to stare at the five’s tombstones as the moon rose.
Silence reigned.
“Hey Starlight" Fluttershy started after a few seconds of silence and thought. "....I just want you to know...I forgive you. A-And this wasn't your fault.” Fluttershy suddenly said. Starlight’s nerves doubled and beads of sweat began to emerge.
“W-What?!” she asked perplexed, as she quickly rose to her hooves.
She couldn’t see Fluttershy’s face due to her mane, but when the moonlight hit them just right, Starlight thought she saw a smile as Fluttershy stared at her friends tombstones.
Fear kicked in almost instantly and Starlight automatically felt panic fill her heart. Sparks of mana flew out of her horn, and her hooves began to tremble once more.
“Wh-wh-wha-what do you mean?” she asked with a nervous innocent smile.
Fluttershy merely shuffled uncomfortably in her seat. “Well” she said in a gentle tone, meant to be friendly but came off as creepy. “You’ll find out.”
WHAPRF
Starlight’s eyes snapped in the direction of the ground and for a brief second she thought she saw Twilight’s tombstone move.
“Hehe. Oooooookaaaay...Well Fluttershy, I’m going to go get some sleep. Hehe. Goodnight!” she said her eyes still fixed on the tombs, as she began to move back towards town.
But before she could, Starlight felt herself hit Fluttershy’s chest, knocking her back to her rump.
“Oh no no. Please don’t go” Fluttershy said gently, though once again, with fear having taken over and endorphins kicking in, all Starlight heard, all she could process was a darker meaning behind those words.
Moonlight hit them both once more like Luna was saying “this is it. This is your punishment.” And for a brief second Starlight thought she saw mania in Fluttershy’s slightly puffy, slightly red eyes. Trembling took over, the look of concern Fluttershy had on her face, looked like a deceptive look that could kill a mare.
Instantly, Starlight backed away the moment Fluttershy tried moving towards her. Then it dawned on Starlight “Hello. I’m a unicorn!” she tried to use her magic, but she was shaking too much to think of the proper matrix codes to use to properly teleport herself far enough, and all she ended up doing with her horn was shooting four sparks of mana out.
Then suddenly...something weird happened. Something very...weird.
From where Starlight stood she was inches away from the five tombs. Immediately, four of them shook with a force, shot out of the ground and landed all around Starlight like a barrier or magic circle that prevented her from escape.
But that wasn’t the weirdest part...oh no.
Starlight suddenly heard...moaning?
“Auuuugggrrrrrhhhhhh” came a voice from the ground.
The ground shook under Starlight, fear crept in. She tried using her horn again but again it failed.
Just when she thought about running, she looked ahead and saw Fluttershy’s worried expression, but then in a brief instant fear kicked rationality out the door and said “go buck yourself” as Fluttershy’s worried image turned into one of anger and rage, in Starlight's eyes.
Starlight whimpered and took a shaky step back that only made her shoe knock forward with one of the tombstones.
KRRGH!
Four hooves shot out of the ground. Twilight, Rarity, Applejack (still holding the broom), Rainbow Dash and Pi-....not Pinkie were all up.
“W-What’s happening?” Starlight wailed in fear, but came out as a hollow whisper.
“T-try to calm down” Fluttershy stated in gentle undertones, but again that was only misconstrued by Starlight’s fear and adrenaline activating her fight or flight, both of which were proving to be a failure.
Slowly and menacingly the four hooves of each mare, dug into the ground and attempted to pull their owners out to the surface. Twilight was first, she looked angry, dust covered her mane, her coat, her eyes were twitching and watery and she was drooling like a zombie as she came out of the ground, spitting dirt out of her mouth, one wing half up, the other at on add angle shaking dirt off her face. Sparks of magic flew by.
“Auurggggh rhis room ‘ere?” moaned Applejack as she ripped Broomstick Joe out of the ground to her side and stared at it with what looked like confusion, but came out as a desire for wanting to eat brains, when she looked at Starlight and tipped her stetson up.
Rarity’s previously shocking look now looked more horrendous than before. But then again anyone would when you leave your face like that for five hours straight without rest. Mud and dirty covered her perfectly polished hooves and when half of her was out of the ground while the rest of her friends were almost out of their own graves, she shrieked a howl so loud it made Starlight feel like she was about to go number 1 instead of “she should run”.
“I’m gonna get ya!” Rainbow Dash’s scratchy voice called as she dragged the frightened mare’s attention to her, spitting out dirt and clawing her hooves on the ground towards Starlight. “Give it back Starry! Give. Back! What’s. Mine!” she said with a crazed look in her eye.
Starlight whimpered, she backed away. She could feel the rainbow, locking her as its new undead target, and first meal. She couldn’t move, fear had won this battle between rationality and she was stuck in place. Fluttershy’s words of comfort weren’t even heard by her at this point right now what really bothered Starlight was how these four dead mares were suddenly alive like the undead.
Wait...., Starlight’s eyes widened in fear as she backed away from the four mares moving towards her, all saying things she couldn’t comprehend as her chest began to heave in and out in and out.
“Where’s Pinkie?” she whispered eyes frantically searching for the party planner..
Her answer came faster than she expected.
The four mares stopped moving the moment she asked the question and all stared at each other with a shrug. Immediately, Starlight felt a presence wrap itself around her rear hoof from the ground that made her shriek a scream of terror.
With a struggle the pink hoof and her rear leg fought for dominance as Starlight tried to get her footing on the ground once more and away from this undead entity. But the battle was futile.
With the extra effort, Starlight pulled herself to the ground along with a dirt covered Pinkie, who wore a wicked grin finally glad to be out of the ground since she got stuck trying to eat her casket. With one hoof holding her leg, the other moving towards the pink mare’s mane and digging out a cupcake full of dirt, grim, bits of hair, and strangely enough a lit candle made of candy, Pinkie's grin widened.
Starlight stuttered as she blinked twice and on the second blink found Pinkie gone, only to freeze entirely and make a blank face as she felt a presence behind her.
“Heeeeeeere’s Pinkie” the party planner said, gently holding Starlight’s mud cupcake in front of her.
“Make a wish Star” Pinkie whispered menacingly in her ear. So close was she that Starlight could practically feel her very breath make her ear twitch.
Everything faded in and out, Starlight felt herself go limp and the next thing she knew...she was unconscious.
“Don’t you think you guys went too far back there?” Fluttershy asked looking into Starlight’s casket.
“Um, no? We all agreed to the plan remember? We’d fake our deaths and you’d act your part. Besides, how were we supposed to know Twilight still had enough magic to make an explosion that big, we just went over what we needed to after everything was done” Rainbow Dash said with a glance in Starlight’s direction.
“But...still” Fluttershy said as she stared into Starlight’s casket.
It was morning now in Our Town. And about eight hours had passed since the mane six had explained to the townsfolk that they didn’t actually die and no, they weren’t really zombies back to seek vengeance on all that had wronged them.
It was Applejack who did the honest thing (nudge nudge), and told the town the truth. How they suspected there was more to Starlight than what she said. How Fluttershy discovered her real cutie mark was never taken from the staff of smashness or whatever its name was. And how they had made up this plan all in an elaborate attempt to scare Starlight into giving them their cutie marks.
Although...it seemed to have worked a bit too well.
“So you’re saying that that huge explosion was actually just a result of harnessed magical energy focused into one point on the shed and expanded gradually as it released energy and force, resulting in that wave of air pressure and mana?” Smarty Pants asked, when Twilight had explained what she did.
The look of pure joy Twilight had on her face from knowing someone else understood her magic gibberish was purely adorkable. “Yes! How did you-”
“Oh I just guessed.” He said honestly.
Twilight’s joy was short lived.
“So...you’re saying Starlight never took her cutie mark away...but still took all of ours?” Party Favor asked with a hint of annoyance.
Rarity and Dash nodded. “Yes, it seems so.”
“Wow.” Frankly said as casually as she could. “What a hypocrite.”
“Right?!” Rainbow Dash agreed.
“So what’s with the casket then? She’s not uh...dead is she?”
“Oh no, of course not!” Fluttershy quickly protested as she moved away from the casket and towards the others. “Moody Tim just made one for her, in case well....something like this happened.”
“Ya mean her fainting?” Applejack asked with a chuckle.
“Now don’t laugh Applejack, it wasn’t that funny” Rarity said, but seconds later the look of disapproval and her turned up nose, turned into a small sly grin.
“Yeah yeah. So was Tim in on the plan also?” Dash asked turning to Fluttershy who was still glancing back at the passed out Starlight.
“Oh, um...well at first no. But after all the requests I had him do, I thought it was nice to let him know so he knew there was a reason and I wasn’t making him do extra work for no reason.” She said gently, offering the strangely older looking stallion a comforting smile, one he actually returned.
“So what’s the deal with him being the same age as us but looking like Granny Smith?” Dash asked smiling in return at Tim and directing her attention to Twilight.
Twilight paused for a second and shrugged. “Who knows, didn't he say he was a model for craftsmanship or something? Maybe he’ll be back to normal once we all get our cutie mark's back."
“What about Starlight?” Double Diamond asked, looking at the unconscious mare in her casket. “Should we do her a service and offer her a ‘farewell’ before she wakes up and gets a scolding?”
Rainbow Dash and Applejack grinned, Fluttershy shuffled uncomfortable and Rarity and Twilight shrugged.
“Sure why not.”
And so a service in due was given to Starlight Glimmer, in commemoration of her deceit of an entire town, and her passing out due to a carefully thought out and well played plan.
“We are still getting our cutie marks after this right?” Dash asked while Double Diamond began his eulogy.
“Oh yes, most definitely” Rarity replied.
“You know it.” Applejack responded.
“Mhm” Fluttershy replied.
“Yeah, there’s no way we’re not going to after going through all this.”
“Wait” AJ said as she looked around the crowd. “Where’s Pinkie?”
“And now our host, Pinkie Pie would like to say a few words.”
Pinkamena Pie moved forward dressed in all black looking prim and proper to the surprise of all her friends. She tapped the mic once, twice, three times. Then said quite loudly.
“HAPPY FAKE DEATH FUNERAL / (Slash) GET YOUR CUTIE MARKS BACK PARTY, Everyone!” the next thing everyone knew, confetti covered the skies, and rained down upon them.
Deciding to just go with it, everyone cheered at Pinkie’s randomness while meanwhile, a single piece of confetti dropped on Starlight’s nose and made her sneeze.
End
