The Night of the Ball

The rug was tainted with tears and the halls filled with sobs as Senator Fancypants lay there, motionless. A tall mare approached the coffin that stood in the middle of the ballroom. Her coat was snow white, her mane was pink, and she had the "Fleur De Lis" for her cutie mark.

"Mother..." Aromé buried her face into her mother's side, sobbing.

"That must be Fancypant's wife. Fleur De Lis was her name, I think." Trebass thought to himself.

Fleur removed the monocle from her husbands eyes and placed it in his breast pocket. A tear dripped onto the monocle before she covered it. Her single tear turned into multiple tears, but she held them back in fear of her mascara running.

"Mother... He's gone..." Aromé wiped the tears away from her eyes.

Fleur said nothing, she simply cried with her daughter. Trebass stood in the corner, feeling very awkward. He did not know Fancypants very well, so he did not share the same sorrow that the ponies around him were emitting. Everypony cried, while Trebass stood there staring at the body. He was the one who murdered him, he gave the hitponies an opening to kill the father of the mare he thought he loved. But what Aromé said to Trebass struck him down like a bullet.

"Trebass... I'm glad you had nothing to do with this." She said, hugging him.

At that moment, Trebass wished that sniper had put a bullet in his brain. For it would have felt better than what Aromé had just said. He tugged Aromé to the side with a dead look on his face.

"I didn't kill your father, and that's all you need to know okay?" Trebass whispered to his distraught companion.

"As long as you didn't lay a hoof on him, I will still love you. For all of time, till death do we part." Aromé leaned towards Trebass and their lips met. His eyes closed slowly, so did Aromé's. Their lips departed as the voice of another pony interrupting them.

"If you would all please follow me into the Time Garden so that we can lower the coffin." The stallion and three other ponies closed the coffin. As the coffin closed, the cries of relatives intensified greatly.

"Well, shall we get going then?" Trebass wiped the tears from Aromé's eyes and held her chin high. She nodded.

The crowd drifted outside slowly, the sobs stopped filling the hallways and started to echo through the dreary afternoon rain. Trebass couldn't tell if they were crying even harder, or if it was just raining heavily. A hole in front of the center fountain caught his attention. But something was different about the fountain, something was etched into the marble.

"Here lies a father, a husband, a senator, and a friend. Fancypants 1990-2050."

"He survived this long, why did he have to die?" Trebass felt a tear roll down his cheek. He never knew Fancypants, and never wanted to, but he was crying for him. He didn't feel this sad since... He tried not to think about it.

The coffin was lowered into the hole. Every inch it descended, the cries became louder. The cries were silenced by a lightning bolt in the midst of the rain. The coffin had reached the bottom of the hole. The four poniess who had carried the coffin outside began to shovel dirt into the hole.

Trebass stood there with his arm wrapped around his new love. The ponies had finished burying the coffin, it was done. Hours passed as ponies began to leave the Time Garden and return home to mourn. Soon the only ponies left standing were Trebass, Aromé, and her mother Fleur. The moment was interrupted again by the sound of sirens. Police carts drove up to the main gate.

"Quick! This way!" Fleur led Trebass and Aromé inside.

"Mama? What's happening?" Aromé asked as they ran through the hallways.

"Aromé, my dear, go into your room and don't come out until I say. Understand? This is important." Fleur held her daughter with her hooves.

Aromé nodded then set off for her room, unaware of what was happening.

Fleur waited until her daughter was out of earshot, "I know who you are." She faced Trebass.

"W-What? How?!" Trebass was prepared to make his escape when he felt her hoof on his shoulder.

"I know you did not kill my husband, but what I do know is that you are not from here." She spoke so tenderly as the sirens outside grew louder and louder.

Trebass sighed in relief, but his luxury was not to be enjoyed for long.