The Trotting Dead: Unquiet Equestria

The Trotting Dead: Unquiet Equestria

As written by Joseph Raszagal
Book One – Finding Friendship
Chapter Five – Recuperation

“Rest is for the weary, sleep is for the dead.”

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“Drop dead, it doesn't matter
She said
It only hurts when I laugh
She said
Sometimes it's never a crime
To spend the day in bed”

• “Boot Stamping on a Human Face Forever” by Bad Religion

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Twilight tossed and turned in the dark as a gentle pink hoof glided across her mane in an attempt to ease her rising frustration and fear.

As it turned out, simply falling asleep proved to be far more daunting a task than she had at first anticipated. Thoughts swirled around in her aching head like the snow in a vigorously shaken snowglobe, the confusing blizzard eliciting from the lavender unicorn numerous irritated groans throughout the night. It all seemed so impossible, so unbelievable. How was she supposed to just nod and accept it?

Wincing as she felt another migraine settling in, Twilight muttered, “This can't be real.”

Still at the unicorn's side, Pinkie Pie's curly mane bobbed as she replied, “I wish it weren't, Twi.”

“It's not fair.”

Passing another hoof soothingly through the other mare's hair, the baker gave an empty chuckle, “Heh, that's the understatement of the century.”

“How do you deal with it?” Twilight questioned, her face entombed beneath her pillow.

At that, Pinkie Pie sighed and shook her head.

After another hollow laugh, one noticeably devoid of all of the pink pony's usual mirth, she shrugged her shoulders and answered, “Heck if I know, to tell you the truth. How does anypony really deal with this? Figure that out and I'll throw the party we've all been needing.”

Groaning, Twilight nudged the sheets from her purple frame and forced herself up into a wobbly sitting position. Rubbing at her heavy eyelids, she turned to face her pink friend. The party planner's eyes glimmered in the dark of the carriage with the same good humor and kindness that they always did, but there was something else there too. A deep pain painted in the colors of Pinkie's bright blues reflected back at her, a pain that the unicorn felt she was already growing all too familiar with. More alarming to Twilight, however, was how well Pinkie was masking it.

It was less of a revelation to the librarian and more a reminder. Her friends were being strong for her. Just as they always did, they were being her rock.

With an exacerbated grunt, she pressed a hoof to the sore spot below her left ear and said, “Ugh, I'm complaining, aren't I?”

“Twilight, trust me, you can gripe all you want,” Pinkie assured her with a tender nuzzle, the baker's smile faltering for a brief moment. “You think we haven't been moaning on and on and on for the past two months? If you haven't noticed, it's kind of the end of the world. If anything, I think taking it all in stride like nothing actually happened and not complaining would be unhealthy.”

Rolling her eyes, the unicorn replied with a small and silent grin.

“I guess that makes sense,” Twilight reasoned. “It'd take the loss of more than a few marbles to smile at all of this.”

Another dull throb from somewhere inside of her skull quickly dredged the unicorn from her thoughts, accompanied by an unshorn hoof returning to pressure the offending location yet again. Muttering a series of foal-unfriendly expletives, Twilight shifted her weight in the bed until her gaze rested upon a small counter situated just above her. After a quick mental prep to focus against the unavoidable headache that she was about to inflict upon herself, the librarian summoned up the faintest amount of magic and, with a spark, lit her horn. Just as she had predicted, a wave of pain swiftly washed through her brain, though the riptide of nausea that followed fast on its heels did manage to catch her off-guard. Reeling, the purple mare lurched forward and began to dry heave, her magic fizzling out with an audible pop.

Concerned, Pinkie Pie outstretched a hoof, but found it refused as Twilight lifted her head and forced a grin.

“I'm the Element of Magic, Pinkie,” the unicorn smirked, her moxie betrayed somewhat by the sweat trickling down her brow. “Head trauma or no, if I can't cast something as simple as a mere illumination spell then I might as well have my horn surgically removed to get rid of the dead weight.”

“Don't say that, Twi,” Pinkie replied, her ears folding back at such a thought.

Returning a hoof to the pounding drum that had at some point replaced her skull, Twilight snapped back, “Pinkie, no, I didn't really mean tha~ Ugh, look, I'm just being snarky, alright? I'm tired and angry and sad and scared and confused and it feels like there's a team of tiny diamond dogs trying to mine their way out from the inside of my head with pickaxes and I'm trying really, really, really bucking hard not to take it out on you.”

Taking several deep, heaving breaths to steady herself in the aftermath of her taxing rant, the librarian let out an exacerbated groan and crumpled down into the sheets.

“You don't deserve that,” she concluded, her voice barely above a whisper.

By way of reply, Pinkie Pie quietly took to her hooves and climbed into the bed. Settling herself down next to her frustrated friend, the baker placed a hoof beneath Twilight's chin and raised it until their eyes met.

“You don't deserve that either, Twi,” Pinkie stated, her voice hushed but nonetheless firm, “so vent. Vent all you want. Turn the fans all the way up to their max and vent until I'm blown out of the room, I don't care. I just don't want to see you taking all of this out on yourself. It's too much, Twilight, way too much. That's why it's called 'a shoulder to lean on', right? Well, I have two shoulders ready for you if you loose your balance. I always will.”

Her eyes watering up, the unicorn quickly blinked to clear them and smirked, “Heh, feels more like I'm losing my sanity, but I guess that's another way to word it.”

A moment of silence fell over the small carriage as Twilight leaned forward and nuzzled the party planner. With a heavy sigh, she then pulled away and smiled.

Feeling as though she'd come frighteningly close to reaching a new echelon of frustration, the unicorn rolled her shoulders and turned her gaze back to the counter above the bed.

“Alright, let's meet somewhere in the middle,” she said, setting her jaw in determination.

Warily, Pinkie Pie quirked an eyebrow and questioned, “What?”

“Let me try one more time, just once,” the lilac mare retorted. “If I can't do it, I'll stop.”

“Can't you just tell me what it is you're trying to do?” Pinkie asked in return.

Shaking her head, slowly so as not to agitate it any further, Twilight answered, “Only if I can't.”

Scrunching her face up in thought, the pink mare contemplated just why her friend was being so stubborn. Briefly, she considered fetching Applejack to swap notes and compare both mares' inflexibility, remembering all too clearly how unbending the farmer's stance often was once she'd set her mind on something.

Eventually, Pinkie found that pondering the subject any further would prove to be a pursuit in futility. Relenting, she simply nodded and inquired, “Do you promise to tell me what's going on and ask me for help if you can't do it?”

Grinning, Twilight recited, “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.”

Satisfied, Pinkie shrugged in apprehensive compliance.

Turning, the adamant purple mare dug her hooves into the bedding for support and narrowed her eyes menacingly up at her target. Steadying her breathes into a deep rhythm, she let out and snort and brought her magic back to a focus. The pain and nausea returned in force, but Twilight remained resolute, her horn radiating a soft aura and illuminating the makeshift medical station.

“I just... I need to do this,” she grunted as small rivers of sweat began streaming down her face, eyes scanning the now-visible rows of bottles alphabetically organized just above her. “I need to be able to do something, dammit.”

With the new source of light assisting her, Twilight swiftly found her prize and lifted a hoof to snatch a bottle of high-strength pain killers. Her objective completed, the unicorn promptly released her magic and collapsed into a panting heap of purple fur, perspiration, and tangled legs.

Triumphantly, she stuck a hoof up into the air and declared in between ragged gasps, “H-ha! Element of M-magic... one, excavation crew... inside my h-head... zero!”

Rolling her eyes, Pinkie Pie reached out and swept up the bottle in her hooves, popping the top of and admonishing, “Really, Twilight? You couldn't have just asked?”

“H-had to be... done,” Twilight wheezed back, grinning in spite of her hoof-to-horn weariness. “H-had to try.”

Shaking her head, the party planner counted out 60 milligrams in the form of three little pills and passed them to her exhausted friend. Eventually mustering up the strength to sit up, Twilight inhaled all three at once without so much as a drop of water to help them go down.

Perhaps it was the placebo effect from the simple sensation of swallowing the medication, the knowledge that the clatter in her brain would soon quiet down, but seconds later Twilight felt a sleepy weight already beginning to settle throughout her body. Putting up no resistance as gravity pulled her down, Twilight swayed where she sat and slid along the side of the bed's headboard, the end result leaving her leaning heavily into her poofy pink friend. Content to sleep wherever it was that she'd fallen, the strange pillow of springy curls beneath her surprisingly comfortable, the lavender unicorn let out a sigh and allowed her droopy lids fall fully closed.

“I wish it were all just a dream,” Twilight muttered tiredly, still grinning, “even though I'd have to go and give Princess Luna a piece of my mind afterward.”

After a brief pause, Pinkie's eyes watered up and she snickered, “Can you imagine, you just stomping into the palace past the guards and shouting at her at the top of your lungs?”

“I think I can now,” the lavender unicorn murmured, unconsciousness rapidly approaching.

“We'll have to do something with your mane before Rarity sees it. It got all frazzled like it usually does when you... well... get all frazzled.”

“I'm good at that.”

Nuzzling the librarian, Pinkie Pie snickered, “Still doesn't beat mine though. The bane of every brush's existence.”

Smiling, the baker nodded silently to herself in satisfaction, Twilight's nerves successfully calmed for the time being. Heaving a sizable sigh of her own, Pinkie held the purple mare for several more minutes, wriggling out of the Element of Magic's grip only once she had finally fallen asleep. Carefully, she climbed out of the bed, pulled the sheets back up, and tucked them in, leaving her friend snoring lightly inside of a cozy linen cocoon.

With her task completed, Pinkie Pie stealthily exited the carriage, closing the door as quietly as possibly. Once outside, she stretched herself out in a manner most feline, arching her back and releasing an almost comically large yawn. Smacking her lips noisily as she turned her head and scanned the nearby fire pit and the chairs surrounding it, the baker spotted Rarity sipping on a mug of cider.

“Care for a drink?” inquired the fashionista as she spotted her pink friend.

“You have no idea,” Pinkie replied, the night's anxiety having supplied her with a desert-dry mouth.

Her trot slowed and absent of its usual bounce, the party planner approached the campfire and plopped herself down unceremoniously in the dirt beside Rarity's chair.

“Darling, no offense intended, but you look like you could use a shot or two of whiskey in your cider.”

“We have whiskey? Why didn't anypony tell me?”

Shaking her head, the white unicorn took to her hooves and paced over to a small ice chest, chuckling, “Would we have, I'm quite sure we would have suddenly found the barrels empty the next day.”

“Hey, it's not my fault I can drink the rest of your girls under the table, you all just fall asleep too soon!”

With a wry grin, Rarity replied, “The inventive ways with which you apply that boundless energy of yours never fails to impress, darling.”

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To be continued in Chapter Six – Doing What Needs to be Done...

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Author's Game:

Guess the opening quote before the song lyrics!