//------------------------------// // The Chain Letter // Story: One Shot per Page // by Apocalyptic Fries //------------------------------// Twilight liked to think of herself as a rational pony. Sure, there were some things she knew she could never understand – Pinkie Pie, for example – but she figured, as long as science marched onward, all mysteries would be revealed in time. There was no sense in worrying herself over something she couldn’t do. This of course only came after her coronation, by which time she had fretted over Pinkie Pie’s inexplicable hold on reality and being visited by a doppelgänger of herself from the future. She also liked to think that because she was rational, she could see when and why others were not. Being able to think logically, she was able to see through the things that others feared, which they usually feared because they could not understand, but she could. So naturally, when she received a strange letter in the mail, she did not worry about it. She had strange things in her junk mail all the time; this one foretelling doom and gloom for those who were too unwise to send it along was just one of them. She did notice other ponies sending strange letters to each other more frequently of late, usually letters that stressed the urgency to be passed along. These “chain letters”, as they were apparently called, often told horror stories of previous recipients of the letters who did not do as instructed, and success stories of those who did. This particular letter implored her to copy and send it to seven others to meet her soulmate by Friday, or else sprain an ankle, lose her job and go to prison the next day (in that order). “This is so scary ‘cause it actually WORKS!!!!” ended the letter. Naturally, Twilight scoffed. She tossed the letter and went about her day. The next day, Twilight tried to get out of bed. For some reason, the sleep wore especially heavily on her today, so in her haste to get up and face the day, she stumbled so hard she sprained her front right ankle. The letter briefly flashed into her mind as Spike helped her nurse her injury, but she quickly pushed the thought out of her mind. But once she received a letter signed from the former owner of the library that effective immediately her employment was over, she began to wonder if the letter was true. Dejectedly, she packed her and Spike’s things and headed over to Rarity’s to crash. Along the way, Twilight tried to fly, but accidentally caused a cross-eyed pegasus to crash. Mayor Mare was on the scene and instantly punished Twilight with up to five years in prison and a 250,000 bit fine. Panicking and swearing she would appeal, as she rode away in the police wagon she tried to think back to all of her studies of Equestrian law… and then she remembered the chain letter. Had it all been true? As she screamed her last free scream, she woke up with a start in a cold sweat in her bed. It had all been a dream; she quickly roused Spike from his sleep to send a letter to the Night Mare to inquire as to whether this was a joke, but Luna would later reply that it wasn’t she who had perpetrated the dream… Meanwhile, a certain spirit of chaos grinned as he remembered his adventures in slumberland the previous night, sipping his morning tea with Fluttershy.