The Trotting Dead: Unquiet Equestria

Doing What Needs to be Done

As written by Joseph Raszagal
Book One – Finding Friendship
Chapter Six – Doing What Needs to be Done

"Sometimes you cannot believe what you see. You have to believe what you feel."

~ ~ ~

“What will I become,
With the things I would create?
I never said that men should bow
I never said that men should break
I only want what's best
The one I love, she works so hard
Works her fingers till they bleed
All the pain that she endures
Would bring a strong man to his knees
I only want to help...”

“The Good Doctor” by The Protomen

~ ~ ~

Levitating a mug over to her friend, Rarity brushed a stray lock of mane back behind her ear and asked, “How is our dear Twilight doing?”

Staring into the crackling fire, Pinkie Pie took a hearty swig and shrugged her shoulders, unabashedly basking in the heat of the spiked cider as it settled in her stomach.

“Better, I think,” she sighed as she watched the flames flicker and dance. “Maybe even better than I thought she'd be.”

Settling her chin on the crook of her two crossed hooves, Rarity took in the sight before her. Quietly, she questioned, “Then what seems to have you so distraught, darling?”

Closing her eyes, the baker repressed an anxious shiver before replying, “I don't know. I just... I think I'm still so super surprised that she's even here with us now, you know? We almost lost her, Rarity, and that's just really hard for me to grasp. Really, really hard. Every time I look at her I think back to when we left her all alone in that hospital, sure that she was already gone.”

Extricating herself from her chair, Rarity sat down beside her troubled friend and placed a hoof on her shoulder.

“But we didn't lose her, darling,” she soothed. “I am certain we will have our work cut out for us ensuring that she rests up, but she will. Twilight will be okay. She has us now, remember? We'll have her ship-shape and back on her hooves in no time.”

Sniveling, Pinkie leaned into her alabaster friend and whimpered, "I don't want to lose any more of my friends. I... I don't think I could take it. When we lost Fluttershy I... I..."

The pink mare trailed off into a quiet stream of sobs as Rarity held her, gently running a hoof through her cotton candy mane. The campfire before them continued to crackle, its flickering light keeping the shadows momentarily at bay.

After a brief pause, Pinkie collected herself enough to continue.

“How do you do it, Rarity?” she asked, shaking her head.

“Do what, darling?”

“Stay so strong. Twilight asked me pretty much the same thing, but I don’t think I’m being that tough at all. I’m just trying to smile. The muscles move and the frown flips upside-down, but my heart just isn’t in it.”

Letting out a dead chuckle, the fashionista insisted, “I'm not entirely certain I follow, but I suppose it is because I need to be. I may have lost more than a few near and dear to my heart, Pinkie, but I haven't lost all of them and I am prepared to fight for those that I have left, just as I am certain that you are. Besides, you may not see it yourself, but you have been quite strong already.”

“I have?”

Shrugging, Rarity pointed an idle hoof to the medical carriage, “Why don't you ask Twilight the same question in return? She needed a friend’s strength and that is precisely what you gave her. ”

“I just want her to be able to smile again,” the pink pony reflected aloud, taking a moment to hide her bright blush at the compliment. “I want everypony to be able to smile again, smile and really mean it. It... it keeps me going.”

“And it shows, darling. It's a strength that you should take great pride in.”

Sighing, the party planner returned her stare to the campfire and said, “I just wish it wasn't so difficult to do these days. So impossible.”

“Smile?” Rarity asked absently, her eyes now transfixed by the flames as well.

“Yeah.”

~ ~ ~

Groggily rubbing at her tired eyes, Applejack groaned at the unwelcome disturbance of muffled speech and muted whispers filtering in though the thin walls of her tent. Opening the flap, the farmer found Thunderlane, Zecora, and Nurse Redheart all staring up at something going on in the distance.

“Now what are y'all yammerin' on about at this hour for?” she huffed as she trudged out to join the three, grimacing over the four hours of sleep she'd likely miss before standing guard at the hill. “It ain’t even dawn and here Ah am, awake.”

With an exacerbated look of his own, Thunderlane pointed towards a clearing on yet another slope some thirty meters above them.

Twilight had woken up. A fine sheen a sweat matted her disheveled mane and tail as she hacked at the ground inexpertly with a shovel. She was digging graves.

She was five graves in when she collapsed.

~ ~ ~

To be continued in Chapter Seven – Here Comes the Neighborhood...

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Author's Game:

Guess the opening quote before the song lyrics!