Even Death Needs A Vacation

"Good morning, Lily!~" Fluttershy cooed as the girl slowly climbed out of bed, sunlight beaming in through a nearby window, partially blinding the scarlet-eyed demi-fox. Of course she'd be happy. She just got herself a new daughter.

"...Morning Mom." The tone of her voice was far less cheerful, and at first glance, it may have come off as her just simply not being a morning person. Then again, the past night was really rough for them both, Lily especially. How do you recover from a nightmare of that caliber? Lily felt like she had a pretty damn good answer: Never sleeping again. Ever. 2 out of 3 times she's slept, she's had night terrors. She's better off staying awake.

"Are you ready for your first trip to school?" her host teased, "Geez, I'm even sounding more like a mom now, huh?"

"Yeah... Exactly like a mom," thought Lily, rubbing the sleep from her eyes as she twisted her mouth into a half-frown.

"Lily, you going to be okay today?"

Removing her fist from one eye while still rubbing the other one, she looked at the butter yellow pegasus hovering in front of her, who seemed reasonably concerned.

"You don't have to come with if you're not feeling up to it."

Lily paused, letting out a quiet yawn before blinking at her and giving her a tiny smile. "I'll be fine, Mom. Really."

"Are you sure?" her adoptive mother frowned, "I don't want to over-exert you right after... you know."

"You can just drop me off at Twilight's if you're that worried... It's right beside the school, right?"

"Alright, Lily. Now get on, we don't want to be late."

Landing beside the bed, Fluttershy turned away from her, allowing Lily to climb onto her back and get settled. Then they were off, cantering into Ponyville for a new day. The trip was shorter this time because of the speed that Fluttershy was maintaining, who muttered to herself quietly as they walked. Something about "friendship lessons" and "field trips". Lily was only paying half-attention, lost in her own thoughts and memories of last night.

A part of her wanted to talk to Fluttershy about it. A much bigger part of her wanted to bury it and never talk about it again. But she knew she had to do something about it.

Arriving just outside of the school, the two parted ways; or tried to, anyway. Fluttershy kept turning tail and flying back to make sure that Lily was okay, and that if she needed to talk to just come find her in the school, and that she wouldn't be far, and that-

"Okay okay!" Lily said, giving an awkward smile, "You're going to be late if we keep this up!"

"Oh you're right! Okay, you know where to find me! I'll pick you up after school, Lily~" And with that, she flew into the school and the doors shut behind her. Lily walked to the double doors of Twilight's castle, a short walk from the school grounds, and went inside, her ghostly companion following closely behind her.

Entering the foyer, Lily paused, then looked down the adjacent halls before leaning on the wall near the door to the Map Room, taking a deep breath and sighing.

"Thank god, I swear that charade was getting hard to keep up... C'mon, let's get a look at that map."

The duo quickly entered the map room, made sure they were completely alone, then went to the table, inspecting it closely.

"Alright... That's Ponyville... Annnnd that looks like a set of train tracks," she said to Spirit, pointing at the dashed line that passed through the tiny town, "If we could figure out what time the train enters the station, we'll be able to catch a ride out of town."

Spirit floated in front of Lily's face suddenly, making the reaper lean back in surprise. It gave her a few sharp bounces, making soft jingling noises, as if trying to talk to her. This was the first time Spirit ever did anything like this. It almost sounded... upset.

"Of all the times you decide to speak up, the ONE time I'm trying to make a decision to ensure our safety and you're telling me it's a bad idea?!"

The ghostly ball shuddered and shook, the soft tingling noise from it getting a little more adamant... If that was even possible.

"Yes I called her 'Mom', but that's because 'Mom's hurt children! And the fact that she's happy that I called her 'Mom' is just proving my point! That pegasus is bad news, Spirit. The sooner you accept that, the better!"

The ghostly ball turned away from Lily, tingling and jingling as it shook.

"What do you mean you're not going to do it?! You're playing right into her trap! We may not be able to die, but she's setting us up. This has to be some sort of punishment. The nightmares, the sleeping, the new world, the lack of work, the weird clothes! Our mentor didn't reassign us, he's making us suffer. That pegasus is going to get us all comfortable and cozy and it'll be THAT much more heartbreaking and crushing when she inevitably springs the trap! That nightmare was a sign, Spirit!"

Spirit turned back around, getting closer to Lily's face and jingling a little louder.

"I'm NOT paranoid! We had this coming a mile away, Spirit! You know it and I know it!"

The orb whipped at Lily's cheek with it's tail, causing the reaper to lean back to avoid it, all the while jingling and tingling noisily.

"Fine! If you love her so much, then YOU stay and get the rug pulled out from under you! I'm getting out of here, and fast! WITH or WITHOUT you."

With a sharp huff, Lily turned around and stormed out of the castle, leaving her companion behind. Growling and muttering to herself, Lily didn't even notice when she began to drip, her hair becoming heavy and her clothes soaking through. Ponies all over looked at her with concern, watching the strange creature practically falling apart as she went through town. Pausing, she looked around as she heard a mare gasp from her appearance. Looking down at herself, she let out a frustrated shout, which only seemed to make her appearance even worse.

"Stupid reaper magic..." she said with a scrunch of what was left of her nose, "Oooh you have to be this emotionless husk otherwise you start to look more and more like how you died, blah blah blah, too much emotion and you'll fall apart... nyeh nyeh nyeh."

Walking all the way back to Fluttershy's cottage was a bit of a chore, but she finally managed to make it there, despite most of her legs being decayed. As she entered the house, however, all the animals who once didn't care at all suddenly began to freak out. Rolling the red wisps of light that remained in her skull sockets, she walked over to the couch and picked up her robe and put it on, then grabbed up her scythe before briskly heading back out, leaving the door open as she did so.

"Stupid animals... Don't care when I show up the first time, and now that I look a LITTLE different, everybody start screaming!"

She was halfway back to town when she took a long, slow deep breath to calm herself down.

"You don't need Spirit, Lily... Just catch the next train out of here, and we'll figure out a way to get out of this crazy world."

Her body slowly regenerated itself as her began to clear her head, and by the time she was in town again, she was back to her usual appearance. Quickly, she walked towards a passerby, scowling.

"Excuse me..." she asked, "Which way to the train station?"

The shuddering stallion stared into her scarlet eyes, at a loss for words, so he just slowly pointed a hoof to his left.

"Why are you shaking so much? I just need directions."

"A-Are you feeling okay? You.... were falling apart and dripping water all over the street just a while ago..."

"I'm fine," she snapped, "Now just tell me where the stupid train is!"

"Three blocks that way, take a right and it's just ahead of you."

Without so much as offering a thanks, Lily walked away, her scythe clacking against the ground as she headed in the direction of the train station. A dull thud from behind her indicated the stallion she was just speaking to must've collapsed, not that it mattered.

"The sooner I'm out of here and away from that pegasus, the better..."

The train ride was anything but enjoyable. For the first time in 5000 years, Lily felt completely alone. Her ancient heart ached from what she was doing, telling her to go back and just forget about it. She wanted to run back to the cottage, embrace Fluttershy and act like everything was okay. But it wasn't. If it was, she wouldn't be sitting in the back of a cluttered luggage car, speeding towards who-knows-where, without her best friend to talk to.

"It's better this way," she insisted to herself, as if trying to convince her heart to agree with her brain, "If we stayed there, it would only make it that much more heartbreaking when she inevitably hurts me."

But if it was, indeed, 'better this way', then why did she feel so bad? What was she running from other than a loving home, a group of mares who were genuinely worried about her, and worst of all... Spirit?

Spirit was dragging her down, obviously. And it was all a false act of kindness, a ruse. If she wasn't so caught up in her own stupidity, she would've seen that days ago. All she needed was her scythe, her book and her robe.

Although, on the other hand, how could she be so sure? That's an awful lot of work to go through just for some ruse, and if the intention was to trap her and punish her, there was a lot more ways to do it that are much more agonizing.

It didn't make sense to do it that way, though. Her emotions are what got her into this mess. She's a stupid, sensitive little idiot who thinks with her heart first and not her brain. She's got a job to do and her heart got in the way of that, and now they were going to punish her the only way you can punish someone overly sensitive: By giving them everything they wanted, then destroying it while they watch helplessly.

Surely that wasn't the case, however. Death wasn't a malicious entity, and is constantly talking about how "he's not the one who judges". The whole concept of him punishing Lily was absurd in the long run.

Lily really wanted to believe that.

As soon as the train pulled into the next station over, she immediately flung open the door to the outside and hopped out, being careful not to leave her scythe behind, and to not slam her tail in the door on the way out. Looking around, she found herself in a huge castle town attached to a mountain side. If only she knew WHERE she was.

"Now arriving in Canterlot Station!" A loud train whistle tooted, and the doors to the passenger cars were opened. That answers that question.

Climbing up off the tracks and onto the train station platform, she made her way past several ponies giving her weird stares and muttering to others nearby. Ignoring the rudeness, she started into the unfamiliar territory. It was a busy place, to be sure. Lily figured that if they were going to keep anything that might be able to send her back to Limbo anywhere, it'd probably be in the huge castle at the end of town.

With her goal in mind, she started towards the castle without a second thought. It was going to be a long, lonely walk without Spirit, but that's just how a Death works, isn't it?

However, back in Ponyville, things weren't much better. School had been let out for the past 2 hours, but rather than being home with Lily, Fluttershy was bawling in the Map Room while Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash did their best to comfort their friend. The bouncing flower-wearing ghost was the only thing left of Lily's in town, and Twilight was doing her best to get information from it, without much luck.

"I'm sorry... Go over it one more time."

The ball made a slow, low-toned jingle as it drifted to the floor, then it popped back up and bounced around frantically. Stopping near the map, Spirit made several jingling and moaning noises before darting toward the door, floating back and "looking" at Twilight expectantly.

Unfortunately, Twilight was completely lost at what the strange creature was trying to convey. Her ears flattened against her head as she gave it a slow shake, frowning.

"I'm really sorry, Spirit. I just don't understand what you're trying to say." She turned to Starlight, hoping that she was having better luck in finding a spell to allow Spirit and herself to talk in a common way. "Anything, Starlight?"

"It doesn't look good, Twilight. I've poured through these spell books 5 times over, and there's not a single spell to communicate with... whatever Spirit is."

"I'm a terrible motheerrrrr!!" Fluttershy shouted, burying her face into her forelegs, choked breaths making her back arch sporadically.

"Y-You're not a bad mother, Fluttershy! M-Maybe she just got lost or something!" Rainbow Dash insisted, hoping that would console the hysterical pegasus.

"Or maybe she's playing a really great game of hide and go seek! Ya know, without telling anypony?" Pinkie offered, but when that didn't work Rainbow Dash gave her a deadpanning scowl. "Whaaaat? It COULD be why Lily disappeared for no reason."

Rarity and Applejack came into the room, each one panting heavily.

"I searched the whole farm and not a single hair of her was found! It's like she went and vanished!" Applejack said between breaths.

"No luck in finding her in town either. I asked around, but most ponies just avoided the question like I was asking them to boycott Sugarcube Corner! But I got a lead that she was seen heading in the direction of the train station..." Rarity said shortly after.

"The train station? Why would she go to the train station?" Twilight said, frowning, "This doesn't make any sense."

Spirit bounced and jingled, sounding only more annoyed with the whole situation. But unfortunately, it was completely voiceless and couldn't tell anyone anything useful.

"If only we knew what you were trying to say, Spirit." Twilight whimpered, looking across the table at her crying friend, "Maybe we'd understand why Lily is missing."

Spirit, seemingly having enough of the nonsense, flew off somewhere. There was a lot of clattering and clunking for a moment before Spirit flew back into the room, carrying what looked like a piece of cardboard, a glass cup and a crayon.

"Spirit, this is no time to play!" Rainbow snapped, but Twilight waved her hoof at her.

"Hold on, I think Spirit has an idea."

The ghostly orb began to scribble words onto the cardboard surface. It began by writing the whole alphabet in two neat, curved rows in the center of the board, then the numbers 0 through 9 right under it. It wrote "yes" and "no" in the two upper corners, then wrote "Goodbye" near the bottom before tossing the crayon away haphazardly. It lifted up the cup, placing it open-end down onto the cardboard, then it started to move it around the board.

"I think it's trying to spell something! Quick, somepony grab a quill and paper!"

Starlight levitated a quill and a piece of parchment to Twilight, who quickly began to jot down each letter and number as it showed up.

N...I...G...H...T...M...A...R...E...

"Nightmare?" Twilight said, blinking curiously. "Nightmare Moon?"

The cup slid over "No", then it continued.

L...I...L...Y...D...R...O...W...N...E...D...B...Y...F...L...U...T...T...E...R...S...H...Y...

"Lilydrownedbyfluttershy?" Pinkie said questioningly, looking over Twilight's shoulder, "That's not even a word!"

"Shush Pinkie. It's a sentence. It's saying Lily had a nightmare about being drowned by Fluttershy." Twilight corrected, then quickly backpedaled, "Wait WHAT?!"

The cup slid over "Yes" before sliding over the letters again.

"How...she...died," Rainbow read, hovering above them.

"Forced...drowning...mother...to...blame." Rarity followed along, putting her hoof over her mouth in shock.

"Lily...thinks...nightmare...was...sign." Applejack looked at Twilight, frowning. "A sign of what?"

"Shh!" Twilight hissed.

"Thinks...mothers...are...evil. Thinks...Fluttershy...was...tricking...her," Starlight continued, her ears lowering.

"Ran...away...to...avoid...heartbreak," Pinkie Pie said, her hair making a loud popping noise before deflating, her eyes becoming watery.

"Please...find...Lily," Twilight said, sounding sad, "She's...not...well."

"I...miss...her," Fluttershy said, making all the ponies jump and look at her as her teary aqua eyes followed the glass as it slid sporadically around the board, "Please...find...my...friend."

The ponies all looked to each other, armed with the new information, but unsure of what to do with it. Twilight turned to the ghost, frowning.

"Spirit, we really want to find Lily, more than you know. But we don't even know what train she got on, or where to look first!"

Suddenly, everypony minus Starlight's cutie marks began to light up, making soft twinkling noises. The ponies immediately turned their attention to the Cutie Map, watching as the 6 marks slowly emerged from Ponyville, then floated all the way over to Canterlot, flying little circles around it.

They looked at each other, exchanging determined looks before looking to Fluttershy, who was wiping tears away with her hoof.

"If our theory is correct, that friendship problem is probably Lily, and she needs our help," Twilight said, putting a hoof on Fluttershy's shoulder, "And most importantly, she needs you, Fluttershy. She's got a skewed view on maternal figures, and she projected that onto you. But I know that with enough kindness, she'll come around. Now let's go find your daughter!"

Fluttershy gave Twilight a weak smile, giving her a hug before turning and racing out the door with her friends. Twilight paused, turning to look at Starlight.

"Starlight, keep an eye on the map. It's our only lead to Lily's location, so if something changes, let us know right away!"

"On it!" Starlight said with a determined nod.

"Spirit, are you coming?" Twilight said, looking at the ghostly orb who had settled on the cup, it's flower drooping. Spirit slowly scooted the cup over to "No", then started to spell something out.

"Find...Lily...Spirit...wait...here," Starlight read, looking to Twilight with a shrug. "I'll keep an eye on Spirit. You go find Lily!"

Twilight nodded, then galloped off to catch up with her friends as Spirit sadly pushed the cup over to "Goodbye".