//------------------------------// // Burial // Story: Innocence Once Lost // by Scorched Earth //------------------------------// Proofreader/editor: Biker_Dash Twilight felt that the weather was mocking her. The sun dared to show itself. No rain, no cold air, no clouds... on any other day, she would have welcome such fine weather. Not today. Today she didn’t welcome it. “We have gathered here to remember our friend and daughter, Pinkamena Diane Pie, who we are now to lay in eternal rest.” The priest started the service. Pinkies coffin was in front of everyone. Pinkie had never been much of a religious, she was too carefree to be worried of living “proper” life. Still, her parents had insisted. Twilight could not even imagine what her parents were feeling. She remembered laying down her brother and remembered the mass funeral when the war had ended and those who died in The First Day were blessed. She had felt horrible in both situations. To lay down your own daughter, while you still lived... it must have been horrible. They had seen their home burned and occupied, now they had to watch as their youngest was laid to grave. The others were attending to the service too, except Spike and Rainbow Dash. They were still in hospital, with staff saying that Spikes flame channels were damaged from overuse and required constant monitoring. Rainbow Dash had not awakened, but the doctors had said that it was most likely a result from sudden shock. Her brains were still fully functioning and showed signs of dreaming. She was expected to wake up later today or tomorrow. Fluttershy was barely holding back her sobs, where as Rarity managed to remain silent, yet one could see tears running on her face. Applejack was trying to remain stoic, most likely to hide their own tears. Twilight, on the other hand... she felt numb. She had sat down in The Temple of Faust for far too often. Her parents. Shining Armor. Zecora. Now Pinkie Pie. She missed the times when they didn’t need to fear for their own lives. And worst... they could no longer hear or talk to Pinkie. No more surprise parties. No more non-sequitur speeches. No more randomness from her. No Pinkie sense. No more of her baking. The Cakes had taken the news pretty hard, she had become sort of adoptive daughter to them during all these years. They were sitting in the front seats, behind Pinkies own family. Pound and Pumpkin were surprisingly silent. Perhaps they realized that this was not the moment for any antics. The doubles had decided to join the funeral too, sitting in the backseat. They were clearly uncomfortable with the situation, never really having thought the possibility of dying. Now they were sitting in a funeral, funeral that was for one of their friends... who, paradoxically, was still alive for them. It was rather creepy for them, especially Pinkie. Nobody expects to be sitting in a funeral for themselves, especially when the funeral is very real. The priest went on and on about how she would be missed, how she had given her life to service of the kingdom, how her cheerful attitude had brightened everyone's day. She was barely listening to any of it. They had asked her to give small speech, but she had refused. She didn’t trust herself to be able to do anything other than sit there in silence. Celestia stood up and walked to the speakers podium, her turn coming up. She coughed once before starting to speak. “Pinkie Pie, the Element of Laughter, was one the most interesting ponies I have ever had honor to meet. Her ability to bring laughter and joy during even the darkest times was a feat nobody could replicate. “She knew, that no matter how hard the times would be, it was never good to fall into trap of self-loathing. That we should always look the positive side of everything. Her parties and perky attitude were able to bring laughter and smile to everyones face. “During my long life, I have seen many friends pass away. I tell you now, that the best way to honor those who have died, is to keep on living. To keep them in your heart, to remember them. Yet, at the same time, we should not allow us to be caught in the past. To stop living our own lives. .”Even if today we mourn our friend, we must always remember, that life goes on. She herself would not want us to eternally mourn her loss, but to remember her and move on. To find happiness and life our lives to their fullest. “But for now... we shall mourn her and remember her. It time to lay her down for eternal rest. Unless she turns afterlife into one big party.“ No applauses, not that there were expected. You rarely if ever applaud after a funeral speech. Luna joined her sister at the altar and together, they raised Pinkie Pies coffin and started to carry it out. The ponies slowly followed them to outside. There had been a minor fight over where Pinkie Pie would be buried. Some in the court said she deserved a royal funeral in Canterlot. Other had said she should be buried in Ponyville. Lawyers had gone through her legal documents, trying to find if she had left a will behind. They had eventually found one, but it had not specified anything about the funeral. Only that she would leave about half of her belongings to certain people and rest would go to charity. In the end, they had settled in Ponyville, with The Princesses attending. The grave was slightly aside from rest of the graves. During and after The War, the graveyard had gained a new look. It now had “normal” graves and a different section for those members of Royal Guard that had died during the war and who had lived in Ponyville. Pinkies grave was set to be on the “war casualties” side, with slightly different gravestone. Two Princesses lowered the coffin into the grave. The ponies walked to the grave, lowered their flowers and gave their final words. Humans had sent their ambassador to sent their farewells as well. However, it was only her and her two guards. General Saral had decided to stay at Canterlot. After that, Princesses filled the grave and used their magic to have flowers blooming on it. Roses and other pink flowers. Twilight found it rather fitting. With that, the ceremony was over. Usually, but not always, there was usually a small meeting where ponies would remember the passed away. However, nobody had felt a need to create a “party”. It didn’t feel... right, for a lack of better word. “Uuuh... I don’t feel so good...” Rainbow Dash muttered. She felt like someone had ran a train over her. “Take it easy. The doctors said that there is danger of your body breaking down,” came a strained voice, like someone had bad case of lung cancer. It didn’t help that the sounds were somewhat muted. “Spike?” Dash asked, turning her head and seeing Spike laying in the next bed. Well, she assumed it Spike. Her sight was somewhat blurry too. “Who else?” This was followed by a series of coughs. “Damn it... Gimme a sec to take my medicine.” “What happened?” “You got hit by some magic shield. Knocked you out. The doctors said it played merry havoc with your nervous system, causing... how did that one doctor put it... ‘to overload from sensory input’ I think. How are you feeling?” “I feel like someone had driven a train over me and... weird. I kinda feel the pain, yet at the same time, I can’t,” Dash said. She felt horrible, but on the other hand, she didn’t feel the bed beneath her or the bed sheet. “What about you?” “Lung burn. *cough* Dragons at my age aren’t really supposed to breathe that much fire in that short of time.” “But you will be OK?” “Yeah, they operated on me already. Said they did their best and I should keep taking the medicine they give me. Two pills every time it starts to hurt to breathe for at least a year and another pill twice a day.” “Nothing worse?” “Well, apart from a scar on my chest, but hey, chicks dig scars,” Spike said giving a smile. Dash couldn’t help but laugh. “Yeah, we do. Dunno about Rarity though,” She said. “I doubt she will notice,” Spike joked back. “Unless you two try some vertical mambo,” Dash teased back. “...” “Wait, you two haven’t...? No, that’s not it... you two have!?” “No comment,” Spike said with a grin. “Oh my Celestia GET THAT IMAGE OUT OF MY HEAD NOW!” “What is going on there?” A pegasus nurse entered the room just as Dash was preparing to beat herself senseless. ”Oh, miss Dash, good to see you are awake. Miss Scootaloo will be please to hear about it.” “Scoots is here?” Dash said, welcoming the distraction. “Yes. She is currently at the cafeteria. How are you feeling at the moment?” “Horrible, yet at the same time, numb,” Dash answered. “Hmm, that is expected,” the nurse said, walking to her bed and picking up her file from the front of the bed. “According to this, your sensory system is damaged. Basically, it got overloaded with magic, leading it to experience all sensory feelings at the same, leading to sensory overload. In order to preserve the state of mind, it was shut down. It seems your primary visual cortex and primary auditory cortex are still functioning, to a certain extend. However, there has been no signs of activity in your somatosensory, gustatory or olfactory cortexs, which leads to-” The nurse glanced at Rainbow Dash, who had cocked her head. All she needed a big question mark floating next to her head and she would be perfect image for confusion. “In Equestria, please?” “Your sensory system shutdown. For some reason, it has not fully reactivated. That would explain why you feel numb.” The nurse answered, putting the file back on its place. “I will inform the doctors that you have awakened. They will be here to do a check up on you.” Then the nurse turned to Spike. “And how are you feeling? Are the medicines and painkillers helping?” “Yeah, I feel alot better. At least it doesn’t hurt just to breath anymore,” Spike answered. “I just hope that these things don’t have side effects.” “They should not have. They were produced by the most talented Zebra herbalists. However, if you feel something, do not hesitate to inform us.” The nurse checked the amount of medicine Spike had, before turning to the door. “I will leave for now. Try to keep things down, there are other patients who would prefer silence.” “Okay.” “Sure thing.” The nurse nodded and left the two alone. Dash looked around and saw there was one more bed in the room. However, it seemed to be empty. “Hey, is there supposed to be someone else here?” “Hmm? Oh, that. Not at the moment. We should get someone here eventually, but the guy who used to be in that bed, he got released earlier today. Talked to him little bit. He was a human, said he had served during The War. Apparently, someone had managed to crush his lung. He had transplant, but his body started to reject it.” “Reject it?” “Something about immune system suddenly thinking it was foreign object and stuff. He didn’t himself know about it.” “Oh, I see... Actually, where are we?” “The New Baltimore Health Institute” “Oh. That explains it.” Then she suddenly remembered why she was in the hospital. “What about Pinkie Pie!? Is she okay?” Spike became clearly uncomfortable, looking away from Rainbow Dash. “Pinkie... Pinkie didn’t make it. They are holding the funeral right now.” “Now!? But.. .when... how long was I out?” “A week, Miss Dash,” came a voice from a human doctor, who was flanked by an unicorn doctor and a griffin nurse. “We were initially worried that your brain had suffered major damage, leading to vegetarian state as indicated by our initial scans. However, further brain scans showed that your brains were more resilient had only shut down parts that were not vital to your continued survival. Since then, they have in increasing amounts reactivated, indicating that pony brains are capable of an ‘emergency shutdown’, not quite unlike a human’s ‘beneficial coma’. However, this does contradict with our other studies into non-human coma patients. It will be-” “In Equestria, doc?” “You have resilient brains,” the doctor said, pulling a small flashlight out of his pocket. “We will need to run some tests to make sure everything is okay, however. Please no not move,” the doctor continued, holding Dash’s eye open and flashing the flashlight. “The pupils react to change in lightning, good. How is your eyesight?” “Little bit blurry, but getting better.” “I see... How are you feeling?” “Numb mostly.” “I see... I see...” The doctor said. “Please look here,” He said, raising his hand up in the air. Dash stared it for a moment. “Interesting.” “What?” “You do not feel anything?” “No.” “Please look down.” Dash looked down and saw that doctor had poked her with a small needle. “You don’t feel this?” “No...” Dash said faintly. The doctor removed the needle. “Look like your diagnosis was partially right, Blue Pill. However, she can see and hear.” “Well, for once I am glad I was not totally wrong. One more test,” The unicorn said, picking two candies, one red and one blue. “Please taste these and tell me which one tastes cherries,” he said, handing the two candies to her. Dash took them and tasted both of them, trying really hard to find out which. “I think the red one tasted like cherry.” “Hmm...” “What?” “Both were melon flavored. It seems your taste has been damaged as well.” “Oh sweet Celestia...” Dash said, slumping down on her bed. “Got more bad news?” “Not for now and we hope there won’t be more. However, we will need to run some more test before we can say for sure.” The unicorn doctor, Blue Pill, said. “We need to get you to labs, there are several scans that we need to do now that you have awakened and they can’t wait.” “Why?” “Three reason, two of concerning your own health and once concerning health of everyone,” the human doctor said. “To establish the current status of your brain and to help us establish the timeline as well as further help research. Right now, we still do not know much of how pony brains work. The human brain is well documented and studied, but we have very little information what makes a pony brain tick.” “So, I am guinea pig?” Dash said, unamused. “No. This is mere an additional result from getting the scans now. We will compensate you well for this, of course.” “Fine, let’s get this done. I am hungry.” “Very well. Nurse, please take Miss Dash to lab S324. After that, please make sure her meal is ready.” Twilight was sitting in the library, reading some ancient books about afterlife. She had once asked Celestia about it, when she had been younger. Celestia had admitted that she and her sister had no idea what happened to pony when they died. Celestia had apparently once tried to find out, but when Twilight had tried to pursue the matter, Celestia had answered: “You don’t want to know. I tried to find out, I should have not and now I tell you, you don’t find to find out. I couldn’t find out the final truth, but what glimpses I managed to pierce together were enough for me to forget the whole idea.” Not very encouraging. She was not sure what Celestia had seen or felt, but clearly living creatures were not meant to experience such things. So she was forced to study ancient texts. She heard knocking on the door, wondering who it could be. She had no agreed to meet anyone today. She stood up and walked to door, opening it. She was quite surprised to find out who had come to visit her. “Trixie?” “Me.” “What are you doing here?” “Well... want the honest answer or should I lie and give something you would much rather hear?” Trixie answered, looking away. “*sigh* Give me the truth.” “Well, based on what I had seen so far, I would expect you are taking Pinkies death pretty hard.” Trixie answered. Twilight gave her a glare. She was not mood for another ‘You need help’ talk. “If you are here about that damn-” “And I have been feeling damn depressed lately too, never got over death of my unit and now I got discharged over psychological reasons.. So, I am here to offer you something to numb your and my pain,” Trixie continued, levitating up a bottle of wine. “Best you can find in Equestria. I got few bottles of these, as well as several of that stuff humans drink. Tastes like piss, but guarantees that you get drunk.” “Trixie, I am not sure if drinking is the right choice...” Twilight said. Admittedly, she herself had been considering getting drunk. “I got the experience. Makes you forget about all the shit that goes in your life, even if for a moment.” Trixie said. “Besides, if you don’t drink with me, I will drink these myself.” Twilight wanted to say no. She wanted to take those bottles away from Trixie. It was not a good idea to drown one's sorrows, it never lead to anything good. She seen few drunkards who had never gotten over The War. She didn’t want to become like them. Yet... Trixie offered a moment of relief. A moment without all that pain. She mentally cursed her own weakness. “Come on in. I’ll get us couple of glasses. We can at least pretend we are not aiming to get drunk and we are just remembered Pinkie. Also, I want to hear about your discharge. I had not heard about it until now.” “Whatever floats your boat.”