Behind the Story of the Blanks
Gray Hoof entered his quaint little village with pure confidence and pride, knowing that his latest party would be one of the greatest he’d hosted yet. He had a saddle bag thrown over his back, bulging with supplies, and a smile on his face. Being the party planner extraordinaire he was, he was positive about this.
The first thing he saw were a few tables around the open area, already set up. Gladstone and Roneo must have done something nice for him for a change. “I’ll have to thank them later,” he murmured as he set his bag down by the entrance.
He gazed up and noticed the pink paper lanterns dangling across the town’s welcome sign. They had really taken part in something this time, hadn’t they? He started to place plates and cups in perfect arrangement across the tables until somepony’s voice interfered with his concentration.
“How did your trip to the Outside go?”
Gray Hoof jumped, nearly dropping one of the glasses in the process. He twisted around to find a light green pony with darker, messy hair, staring expectantly at him with sappy orange eyes. “Three Leaf!” he gasped, a hoof to his chest. “Are you trying to kill me?”
She shook her head. “The others wanted me to check up on you,” she admitted, nodding toward the path that led to the neighborhood. “And you know I’m a sucker for begging.”
Gray Hoof sighed, “Well, you almost gave me a heart attack. Anyways, the trip was pretty average.”
“Pretty average?” Her ears drooped in mock disappointment. “That sounds boring. You didn’t run into that creepy Zecora or anything?” she pleaded.
“Nope.” Gray Hoof continued to spread out supplies, ignoring her bored looks.
Three Leaf groaned. “You’re no fun, you know that?” she asked with a hint of sarcasm. Gray Hoof rolled his eyes. The mare laughed almost inaudibly and turned to leave, but Gray Hoof stopped her.
“Tell the others to come back here and help set up,” he demanded in his naturally cool voice, gazing into the calming embers that were her eyes. “And go find Mitta and Ruby.”
Three Leaf gave him a salute before galloping away, leaving Gray Hoof finally at peace.
It wasn’t until three minutes later, though, that his peace was rudely taken away. A stallion with a butter-yellow coat and sapphire hair ran up to Gray Hoof and just about knocked over him and the table.
“Gray Hoof!” he gasped. “Have you seen Starlet anywhere? I need to give her something.”
Gray Hoof blinked with confusion for a few dragging seconds before sighing and pushing Roneo out of his bubble. “Shouldn’t she be coming over here?” he questioned.
Roneo frowned. “I know, but I thought that she would be over here with you or something. Being helpful and such,” he replied, then reached into his saddle bag and pulled out a dazzling red gem. Gray Hoof gazed at it in awe.
“Wow, that gem is shiny,” he commented as it shone into his eyes. He had to hold a hoof over his face in order to get a good look at it.
Roneo was beaming in pride and love. “Yeah. I found it at Ruby’s store.”
Gray Hoof grimaced. “You mean that weird shop full of weird and dirty junk in the middle of the forest?” he asked with a taste of disgust. “Yes, because I’m sure Starlet loves stuff a filly got from the woods.”
The younger stallion was appalled at Gray Hoof’s comment. “This gem isn’t junk!” he snapped, his tone now full of annoyance. “It’s the most beautiful thing in the world.” He paused to sigh lustfully. “Of course, not as beautiful as Starlet.”
Gray Hoof was bored when the word “this” was muttered from the other pony’s mouth. He shook his head and said, “Just go find her.”
Roneo grinned like an idiot, then raced away. Gray Hoof chuckled and continued to work for another minute until he stopped and gazed into his work with a sense of success.
One table down, seven to go.
He moved on to the next table, but the sound of arguing made him freeze and hold in his scream of frustration. Most of the time, Gray Hoof didn’t act like this, not even alone, but he was so deep in his “party-planning” mode that he wasn’t in the mood for distractions. He would have been smiling at lot more, if not for the endless interruptions.
Gritting his teeth, Gray Hoof slowly turned and saw Three Leaf and Mitta yelling at each other in anger.
“You’re doing it all wrong!” Mitta was hissing, her words lashing like a venom-washed whip. “The pink streamer goes first, and then the purple one!”
In Three Leaf’s hooves was a bag of streamers. There were a few streamers hanging on the trees that were obviously ignored by now. “No!” Three Leaf fought back with the same power. “The purple goes first!”
“Pink!”
“Purple!”
“Pink!”
“Purple!”
“STOP IT!” Gray Hoof barked, and the two mares froze and turned to look at him. Clearing his throat, he continued, “Three Leaf’s right, the purple one’s go first.”
Three Leaf snickered while Mitta shot icy lasers at her with her eyes. She walked back into the neighborhood area while muttering under her breath something along the lines of “Stupid blank flanks...”, “...why I don’t trust you at night...” and “...why do I even live with them?...”
The other ponies watched her go, then Three Leaf started hanging streamers merrily like nothing had happened, whistling while she worked. Gray Hoof was starting to do the same, to his surprise, and found her whistles to be pretty soothing.
It wasn’t long before the entire main center had been decorated. Pink and purple shone everywhere; it seemed like the wrong atmosphere for a male pony, but what could you do when you lived in a matriarchy?
Suddenly, a gray and blonde blur caught Gray Hoof’s eye and he flipped around to see Ruby. She was walking casually into the next part of town, not giving neither Three Leaf or Gray Hoof a passing glance.
Gray Hoof was about to comment on how late she was coming back to town, but he squinted at her flank and his heart spiked up through his throat, then burned with a passionate fire.
Was that... a magnifying glass? On her flank?
Oh no.
Without even looking at Three Leaf, he growled, “Get Gladstone and follow Ruby. She’s going to spoil the party.”
Three Leaf understood perfectly, and ran away to find her friend.
Gray Hoof was in both disbelief and frustration. How could Ruby be such a traitor! She had gotten the curse, probably willingly, and thought that it was a good idea to wander through the neighborhood and pass it on? What if Gray Hoof of Three Leaf had gotten infected and didn’t know it? It was unsafe to walk around without being “cured.” She had to pay the price.
This was going to be a great party, and Ruby was not going to ruin it for the rest of them.
Gray Hoof was in a swirling hurricane of feelings and thoughts, but was surprised to see a stranger walk through the entrance. He felt a wave of relief wash over him as he saw she had no mark. Putting on his best fake smile to hide his other emotions, he walked to the young filly.
He laughed. “Why, hi there, little filly, and welcome to Sunny Town!” he greeted. Something told him he was being a bit too cheery, but he pushed the voice aside and smiled at the yellow foal expectantly.
She looked up at him nervously, like she was lost or something. Most ponies who visited were, so he wasn’t surprised. “Umm, thanks,” she said in a slight drawl. “But just who are you anyway?”
“Gray Hoof at your service,” he replied, his face softening. “Celebration planner extraordinaire. The party just started, please help yourself to food and drinks.” He gestured to the tables around the entrance with a hoof. The strange filly stared at him for a second before continuing to walk around.
Gray Hoof noticed Starlet was there; she must have come up while he was busy, but the filly was talking to her. He shrugged it off, then his mind retraced itself back to Ruby’s situation.
His mind was a black hole of mixing feelings. One was pure anger at Ruby. For bringing a curse into his village. He knew that cutie marks were a burden, and that if you had one, the holder had to be burned to death in their fireplace until they were nothing but bones and burnt flesh.
Another was confusion as to how she got this mark. There was nothing for her to do. Maybe somepony from the Outside with a mark had given the curse to her? A pang of pity hit him as he realized she had to be killed for something that couldn’t even have been her fault.
But the biggest thought that was overpowering the others?
Fear.
Fear for his village. Fear for Ruby. Fear for the others. Fear for the poor filly who had to witness this.
Trying to get his mind off of this before bad things happened, Gray Hoof sighed and walked into the neighborhood.
Three Leaf had attempted to wash the ash off of her hooves in Ruby’s well, but there was a trace of it that remained on her legs, combined with a smoky smell that hung over her body. Basically, she smelt like burnt furniture.
She sat down in front of her house, watching the sun begin to set. Her deed had been done, and the consequence would be set later tonight. With a breath of relief, she watched Gladstone pass by with a fair amount of ash on his hooves. She hoped nopony else noticed it.
A light yellow filly was walking over to her, her bright red hair and pink bow shining in the sunset. Three Leaf frowned when she couldn’t recognize her, and her breath nearly caught in her throat when she prepared to talk to her.
“Ah didn’t know there lived any ponies ‘n the Everfree Forest,” she said, her wide eyes puzzled. Three Leaf flinched as her face seemed to notice the smell of smoke, but she said nothing of it.
Three Leaf smiled. “You are not the first visitor to say that,” she answered happily. “We have everything we need right here, so we rarely, if ever, leave.” Not all of her statement was true, as Gray Hoof had just left to get party supplies. She was surprised he wasn’t spotted.
The filly blinked, taking in this strange information, then shrugged and trotted in the direction of Ruby’s house. Three Leaf didn’t try to stop her; she needed to know what would happen if she obtained a mark. It was basically a miniature health lesson.
Three Leaf almost jumped as a gray and black pony ran over to her with an angered look on his face. “What did you tell her!” he demanded, his face pressed up to hers.
She could see his breath was coming in short spurts, and sweat the size of dodgeballs covered his forehead. Three Leaf couldn’t answer, and only stuttered like an idiot.
“What. Did. You. Tell. Her?!” he nearly shouted. He was shaking. But it was more than just because he was mad. Was he... scared?
Three Leaf pushed him away and fought back, “I only told her about why we didn’t leave, and if you keep screaming, she’ll find out!”
“I wasn’t screaming until you refused to tell me!” he snapped. “Why didn’t you answer me once I asked?”
“You were in my face! What else was I supposed to do?” Both of their faces were a steaming red, but Three Leaf was closer to tears.
Gray Hoof gazed into her face and could see the fear taking over her anger, and his voice level lowered. “Look, I’m sorry,” he said, his eyes never leaving hers. “But we can’t let her find out. You know what happens when somepony sees what we did.”
“I know...” murmured Three Leaf with her voice quivering.
Suddenly, the area behind turned a bloody black, and the ground under them turned a deep gray.
Gray Hoof saw this and became scared again. “Great! Look what happened, you idiot!” he said to Three Leaf. She was already going into the changes. “You didn’t hide the evidence, did you?”
She shook her rotting head, while her flesh dangled with her movements. “I’m sorry!” she cried, and her voice thrust into a raspy growl. Then she fell to the ground.
Gray Hoof’s legs were weakening, turning into bones and bloody skin. He was threatening to do the same thing Three Leaf did, but it was too late for him to do anything. He sank to the ground as well.
The filly was coming closer, as he could taste her fear in the air.
“There was no other way,” Gray Hoof snarled. “She was going to spoil the party...”
Roneo pulled back from Starlet’s sweet lips and saw that the atmosphere was going from sunny to dark. Already he was frightened of what was about to happen, but he knew all too well why it was happening. He gazed into Starlet’s fading blue eyes.
“Roneo, what’s going on?” she asked.
He watched the moon turn blood-red and said, “Ruby got her cutie mark.”
“What?!” Starlet shrieked, but he put a hoof her mouth to make sure she didn’t startle the filly that was running over. He pointed at her with his now gnarly hoof.
Roneo walked over to her, his smile taunting. “All we want is friendship,” he growled. “Don’t leave. The others won’t like it.”
To his displeasure, she turned and ran. They watched her until Mitta crawled out of the ground and began to console her. Roneo grimaced. She didn’t need consoling. She needed to know the truth about Sunny Town and what they thought about the marks.
He looked over at Starlet. She was shaking. If she could, she would have been crying. She was staring down at her new body with ultimate fear. “I hate this...” she whispered.
Roneo turned to her and said, “This is what happened if the curse falls onto us.” He stroked what was left of her hair. “It’s better than dying with a curse, yes?”
“Not for the pony who suffers!” she said quietly and buried her head into his shoulder. Roneo didn’t try to stop her or say anything. When Starlet had her mind set, it was set. You couldn’t change it.
“Don’t cry, Starlet... It’s going to be okay...”
Ruby was surrounded. She couldn’t see them, but they were all around her, their red eyes glowing into her ghostly skin. She knew they couldn’t hurt her anymore, but they could at least torment her and make sure she never haunted Sunny Town. Glancing around wildly, she waited for them to come near. But they didn’t.
She suddenly heard hoofsteps and was prepared to strike at the oncoming zombie pony, but it was only the small filly that had followed her earlier. The pony was running with a scared look on her face. She must have already met the rest of the townsfolk.
“I’m sorry I brought you into this,” she apologized. “I was just curious.”
“It’s okay. Ah don’t blame ya.” Ruby knew she did though, secretly. It was her fault she was going to be killed or trapped inside the forest. Ruby felt sick to her stomach knowing it would be her who basically murdered a filly who had her whole life ahead of her.
Ruby could see the other ponies start to come out of the brush and into view from the corner of her eye. She swallowed.
“Your cutie mark. A magnifying glass?” the filly said, and Ruby faced her with glowing orange eyes.
She smiled. “Turns out I’m really good at finding things,” she said, and her smile widened. “And I will find you a way out of this.” The ponies came nearer, and Ruby was at the point where she was praying to Celestia for safety.
Then, as if on cue, a bright light shone above them, and when it left, the filly was gone. Her prayers had been answered. As the zombies circled her like vultures, she whispered. “See you later, friend...”
