Beneath the Shadow of the Sun
“Sister,” Luna Stood outside the sealed doors of her sister’s private chambers, “Celestia? Please answer, sister, you are frightening me.”
Voices floated past the impassable portal, clear but incomprehensible. The magic that sealed the room was powerful and insidious. “Celestia… sister! Let me in!”
A lonely blue and green orb drifted aimlessly through the deep void, beyond even the light of the stars. A flaming ball of arcane power orbited impossibly. To the planet’s natives this seemed to be the very model of the natural order. The sun moved around Equus, providing light, heat and life by the benevolent grace of their ruler, as it was meant to be.
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Pinkie Pie Bounced happily through the streets of Ponyville, smiling cheerfully at everypony she passed on a glorious sunny morning. The birds sang, and the sun smiled down on the impossible mare from a cloudless sky. Pinkie paused in mid bounce as she suddenly realized that the sun was indeed smiling back at her. Perhaps, the thought occurred to her, Celestia had taken her suggestion to put a big happy smile on the sun, like in the colorful story books she had enjoyed so much as a little filly. She remembered just days before suggesting exactly that during a visit to the Castle with her bestest friend, Twilight Sparkle. She had thought Celestia’s face had scrunched in a really strange way when she had brought it up. But why would the Princess make a face like that over such a happy and innocent suggestion? Pinkie couldn’t think of a single reason, and when she looked again, the scrunchy-shadow-face was gone, and Celestia was smiling gently. And so Pinkie Pie never gave it another thought. But there was that big happy smile, smiling down on her on this glorious perfect morning.
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Starlight stood on the edge of the tower balcony staring blankly into the sky. “It wasn’t my fault!”
The sun smiled cruelly on the unicorn mare in silent judgement. “I didn’t know! Please, I didn’t know!”
That damned knowing smile was her only answer. It taunted her without mercy. “Twilight forgave me! We made it right! None of that ever really happened! I didn’t kill everypony! I didn’t kill Sunburst! STOP SMILING AT ME LIKE THAT!”
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“Bon Bon? You’re scaring me! Put down the knife!” Lyra watched helplessly as her best friend’s eyes drained of all happiness, becoming deep mirrors of despair.
“There’s not going to be anymore pain, Lyra.” The cream colored earth pony’s voice was a hollow echo as she stared at the blade. “There’s not going to be anymore doubt. No more failure. No more shame.”
“Bon Bon! Please! I need you! I… I love you! Don’t do this! I can’t live without you Bonny! Please!” The mint colored unicorn made desperate grab for the blade with her magic.
Her scream echoed beyond their walls into the streets of Ponyville.
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“Look Rainbow Dash! I can fly!” Scootaloo stood at the edge of the clock clock tower of Canterlot High. “I not a failure! I’m not!”
“Scootaloo!” Rainbow Dash shouted from the ground. “Get away from the edge! You’re going to fall!”
“I’m not going to fall!” The young girl sobbed. “I’m not a failure as a pegasus! I can fly!”
From within the building a shot rang out from Principal Celestia’s office.
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“We’re going to write our crush’s names on these pieces of paper.” Sweetie Belle smiled sadly at the young drake, who nodded numbly as he secured the twin ropes from the rafters of the Carousel Boutique’s attic. “And when they find us, everypony will know. And maybe we’ll find love together on the other side.”
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“Ah don’t like it,” Applejack scowled as her shovel removed one more measure of earth.
“Eenope.” Her massive brother scowled in agreement.
“It’s an ill omen, that’s what it is!” The farm mare continued her grim work, tears rolling down her cheeks. “Granny Smith’s time was always gonna come. She passed in her sleep… I just wish I could say it was peaceful. We did the right thing, didn’t we? Sending Apple Bloom to town? I couldn’t let her see her Granny’s face like that.”
Big Macintosh silently continued to dig the hole.
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“What’s the matter, dear Princess?” The image of the Smiling Sun danced through Celestia’s mind like an illustration in a foal’s coloring book. “Did you think you wouldn’t have to see the wonders you have called down upon your little ponies?”
“L… leave me! Leave this place!” Celestia demanded weakly, blood clotting and matting across her fetlocks.
“You’ve failed, Princess,” the Sun’s image taunted in the princess’ decaying mind. “And nothing says failure quite like failed suicide. But sacrifices must still be made. It’s hardly my fault that you weren’t up to the task.”
“Please! Just take me!” The Sun Princess screamed as her thoughts dissolves into abstract imagery.
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Pinkie Pie decided she didn’t like that smile, and she didn’t like that sun. She didn’t like it not one little bit. That smile was a lie. It was a big fat lie of the worst kind. Pinkie Pie understood smiles, and she understood that there was nothing more dangerous than a lying smile. That was a smile that hid a secret. A terrible secret. Possibly the most horrible, terrible secret Pinkie Pie had ever conceived. Pinkie Pie didn’t hear the screams echoing through the streets of Ponyville. Some would say later that the screams echoed across all of Equestria that morning. Her voice was simply one more among the symphony of madness.
“I am the mare of the deep pit candy canes, and you shall fear the smell of my great candynomicon! Gummy bears on honeyed hooves have never trampled swedish fish! I have seen your lemonhead malevolence! Lying saccharine sweet your smile is not sugar! You are not candy!” The party mare’s mane hung straight and limp, even as a manic smile danced behind her eyes. “Enemy of laughter the rocks shall oppose you! They grow and sing from the earth, and as each hearthstone screams at the chisel’s cut, they shall crush you beneath the shadows of the dark places.”
A new dawn of madness had risen over the skies of Equestria.