//------------------------------// // The End // Story: A Prank Too Far // by TheCrimsonDM //------------------------------// A Prank Too Far Written by TheCrimsonDM They all faced Rainbow Dash. The entire town, zombified, looking for more of the tartarus condemned cookies. Rainbow stepped away from the townsfolk as they approached. Her ears folded flat against her head. Her heart racing a thousand miles a minute. “This is all my fault,” Rainbow Dash said. Her heart was shattering inside. Knowing that she killed everyone and transformed them with her cookies. Everyone she knew, everyone she loved. Dead. And all because she was trying to pull off the best prank ever. No prank was worth this. “Cooookiees,” Pinkie Pie moaned as she shuffled forward. Rainbow Dash tried to hold in her emotions, but those walls around her heart had already crumbled. Tears ran down the sides of her face as she looked at all her friends. Rainbow goo covered their muzzles. Fur and manes gone gray with the first stages of rot. Rainbow Dash leaned back and sobbed. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean it. I’m so sorry.” Rainbow Dash knew full well that there was no redemption waiting for her. Pinkie shuffled ever closer. She was gone, the dead look in her eyes made her look like a complete stranger. Fluttershy was gone, Twilight was gone, Rarity, Applejack, all of them. Gone. Even Scootaloo, the little filly that always looked up to Rainbow Dash was a zombie now. The thought struck her like a hammer to an anvil, she was a filly murderer. Rainbow Dash couldn’t live with herself after this, the greatest of betrayals and failure. Rainbow Dash’s hoof bumped into a box full of the toxic cookies that had turned her friends from living, bright, and wonderful ponies, into the undead nightmares she now faced. Rainbow Dash tried to convince herself that she could fly away and get help. It didn’t work. She’d seen the movies. Once you became a zombie… There was only one way out of this. Only one way that Rainbow Dash could accept. Rainbow Dash picked up the box of cookies and opened it. The zombie ponies shuffled a step faster. Rainbow Dash closed her eyes as they all converged around her. “I’m so sorry.” Rainbow Dash shoved her muzzle into the box and ate greedily. The cookies didn’t taste that good, and the poisonous rainbow paint splattered against her mouth, neck, and chest. Still she ate, until they were gone. Once they were Rainbow threw the box down and begged, “Please be quick. Please be quick. Please be quick.” Seconds ticked by slowly. She thought back to how long it had taken for Pinkie Pie to turn. Maybe she’d have to suffer first before becoming one of them. Before she could join her friends in whatever afterlife awaited a murderer like her. Before that though she might be torn to shreds by the zombies surrounding her. The quiet, still zombies. Rainbow Dash opened her eyes, it was hard to see through all the tears. Twilight stood in front of her, but the crazed look in her eyes were gone. Nopony moved, nopony asked for more cookies. Rainbow Dash wondered if this was how they saw each other, or perhaps she was already dead and being feasted upon and these were the souls of her friends come to take her into the afterlife. “I’m so sorry,” Rainbow Dash whimpered. “Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said, she sounded shocked, confused, and sad all at the same time. “You ate the cookies?” “How could I live with knowing what I did too all of you? Of course I ate them. I… I killed you all, turned you into zombies, and, and I couldn’t even save Scootaloo or Rarity.” Rainbow Dash was shaking. The tears flowed freely down her face. “Something like me is better off dead and zombified.” Rarity blinked. “You thought we were dead?” “You’re zombies, of course you're all dead. Now I’m staring at your departed souls.” Rainbow Dash looked around, nopony looked happy. If they were really here for her they should look happy. Still she shook uncontrollably. How come her own spirit was shaking. Weren’t the dead supposed to be calm? “Rainbow Dash, we’re not dead,” Pinkie Pie said. “This was a prank.” Rainbow Dash looked at her. “I know it was a prank. I tried to prank you with these poisoned cookies.” Rainbow Dash thrust a hoof behind her. “I, I killed you all. I’m a monster.” Pinkie shook her head. “No, what I mean is that we pranked you. We aren’t zombies.” Pinkie Pie rolled her eyes and wiped the rainbow colored paint from her lips. “Come on, get with the program.” Rainbow Dash stared at the group long and hard, but stayed silent. “We were trying to teach you a lesson,” Twilight said. “I hope you know what it feels like to be pranked with mean pranks now.” The other four nodded in agreement. Rainbow Dash stood up. “You made me think you were dead, that I killed you and turned you into zombies. All of you. As a prank?” Pinkie Pie smiled. “Yeppers! Awesome prank right?” Rainbow Dash didn’t smile. “Yeah, awesome. So awesome in fact that I’m going home.” She walked past Pinkie, bumping into her along the way. Rarity stepped behind her. “We were only trying to make you understand how we felt.” “Message received,” Rainbow Dash said. She couldn’t decide whether to be angry, hurt, or confused, so she settled on the most familiar of the three; anger. “Tell ya what, no more pranks. Ever. I’m done with them.” “You don’t have to quit pranking ponies, just be nicer about it,” Twilight said. Rainbow Dash got to the door. “I’m done. Good night.” She made sure to slam the door behind her on her way out. She listened in just for a moment and heard the ponies inside talking in hushed tones. Since she couldn’t make out what was being said she went home. Rainbow Dash couldn’t believe what they had driven her to do, even if the attempt was in vain. She had just tried to kill herself because of what she’d done to her friends. It didn’t work because it wasn’t meant too. Rainbow Dash went home, she felt numb all over. Her heart was empty. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t get it out of her head. She couldn’t forget seeing her friends like that, as reanimated corpses of her own design. If this hadn’t been a prank, if those cookies were really poisonous, Rainbow Dash would have killed everyone. That thought was going to stain her soul for the rest of her life. Even if Rainbow Dash could admit that she’d been a bit mean, if not outright cruel with a few of her pranks lately. There was no way she could forget what her friends did to her that night. Rainbow Dash was wounded by that prank of theirs in ways she never thought possible. That prank had gone too far.