The Beautiful Young Vanishing Girl
"Come on, girls!" Pinkie Pie yelled. "I wanna try the cotton candy!"
"It wouldn't be the same without Pinkie's craze for cotton candy" Twilight said with a chuckle.
Sunset Shimmer smiled. She and her friends were at the annual Ponyville Carnival and there were so many things to do. There were multiple rides, including a haunted house, a roller coaster, and a Ferris wheel, a horse race, carnival games, and food galore, including cotton candy, fried Kool-Aid, fried Oreos, and fried oyster skins.
"Hold up, Pinkie," Applejack replied, "We'll get to it soon enough."
As Sunset was walking, she accidentally bumped into someone. She looked and saw that she bumped into a girl her age with seaweed green hair and pale skin. She was wearing something that looked like it came out of the 90s. She also looked like she was shaking from the cold. Sunset noticed this and placed her jacket on the girl.
"I'm sorry," Sunset said. "I wasn't looking where I was going."
"It's okay," the girl said. "I'm Misty Spring, by the way. Are you sure you don't mind giving me this coat of yours?"
Sunset gave a small smile. "Sure, the cold never bothered me. I'm Sunset Shimmer; these are my friends, Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Pinkie Pie." The others smiled and waved. "Are you with anyone tonight?" Sunset asked.
"No," Misty replied, "I'm all by myself."
"Wanna hang out with us?" Twilight asked.
Misty gave a small smile and said, "Sure; that would be great."
The rest of the evening went great. The girls went on many rides, including the Cyclo-drone, which caused each of the girls, except Pinkie and Misty, to become nauseous. She wasn't even afraid of the haunted house that caused even Sunset Shimmer, the bravest of the friends, to run out screaming. The biggest shock of the night was the fact that Misty beat Pinkie Pie in a food-eating contest; she beat Pinkie by eating 40 hot dogs in less than 30 minutes. She even beat Rainbow Dash and Applejack with the ringing dumbbell.
"Wow," said Rainbow Dash. "You're a natural at this stuff."
"Well," Misty replied, "I've been going to this carnival since I was a kid."
Sunset couldn't put her finger on it, but even while wearing her jacket, Misty still seemed to be shaking from the cold air. However, she did not think of it too much. After a few hours, the girls were out in the parking lot heading over to Sunset's car.
"Did you have fun, Misty?" Sunset asked.
"Yes, I did." Misty weakly replied.
"We'll drive you home." said Fluttershy. As they were driving, Sunset noticed that Misty was getting paler and paler. Finally, they reached the front of a house near the edge of town.
"Thanks for a great time." said Misty. She walked up the steps to her home, waved back at the gang, and entered through the door.
As Sunset drove away, she suddenly remembered something. "Shoot," she said, "I left my jacket with Misty."
"Don't worry, Darling," Rarity assured her. "We'll drop by tomorrow and get it."
The next day, Sunset and the girls were outside Misty's door. Sunset knocked and the door opened up, revealing a very tired woman and man.
"Hello," the woman said, "Can we help you girls?"
"Hi, we are hear to see Misty; she has my jacket." Sunset said.
The couple looked at each other and then back at the girls. The woman went into the house and returned with a picture of a little girl that looked almost like Misty. The woman pointed to the picture and asked, "Is this the girl you are looking for?" The girls nodded.
The man gave a small smile. "Listen," he said, "My name is Sea Springs; this is my wife Hot Springs. Misty is our daughter; she died 20 years ago coming home from the Carnival. We have met folks over the years who have encountered her each year." He then handed Sunset a map that looked like a cemetery directory. "You can find her in this cemetery if you do not believe us." He and his wife closed the door, leaving the girls completely stunned.
As they were driving toward the cemetery in silence, Sunset broke it when she said, "Do any of you believe what they said about Misty being dead? I mean, she felt solid and if she was a ghost, my jacket would have fallen off her."
"I don't know, Sugarcube," said Applejack, "They sounded pretty serious to me."
"Oh come on, AJ." replied Rainbow Dash. "That was probably just some sick prank."
Soon, they came across the cemetery and got out of Sunset's car. They began to walk around, trying to find a grave that had Misty's name on it. Suddenly, Fluttershy screamed. The other girls ran over to where Fluttershy was and their hearts sank. There in front of them was a tombstone that read:
Here lies
Misty Springs
December 14, 1980 - October 17, 1996
Taken from us too soon, but never forgotten
Then their eyes looked down and their hearts all skipped a few beats. Lying at the base of the tombstone was Sunset's jacket folded neatly as though it had just come out of the laundry.
"A...prank," Rainbow said weakly. "It's...it's gotta be...some...prank."
But even as she heard her, Sunset knew that Rainbow didn't even believe her own words.