//------------------------------// // 3: Planning // Story: Laughter Died // by Leafdoggy //------------------------------// We met early in the morning to talk about why I was here. Twilight and I were the first ones there, and it was uncomfortable, to say the least, sitting quietly as everypony else slowly filed in around the conference table. They tried not to look at me with fear on their faces, but there was only so much they could do. They all knew why I was here. You can’t hide your fear of death from the reaper. They all showed it in their own ways. Rainbow Dash was brash and cocky, Pinkie joked too much. Their anxieties all fed off each other, and by the time they’d all made their way into the castle the air was thick with apprehension. I decided to jump right into it. “So, I’m sure it’s obvious that I didn’t come back to have fun.” They nodded and gave sounds of affirmation. “I wish I could say it wasn’t too dire, but if that were the case, I wouldn’t have come back.” I took a deep breath. How do I tell my friends that the world as they know it is about to end? “I’m not sure what actually caused it,” I said, “but for lack of a better description… The Elements of Harmony were being stolen from ponies around Equestria.” There were gasps all around. Applejack started tapping a hoof on the table. Fluttershy bit her lip. “What does that even mean?” Rainbow Dash asked. “It was like… Like a disease,” I explained. “A pony somewhere would lose interest in being kind, or having others be kind to them, and anypony they talked to got… infected with it as well. As far as we could ever figure out, the only way to stop it was a quarantine. Complete isolation of anypony affected by it. The six of us could go in and out, for some reason our connection to the elements made us immune, but we were the only ponies who were so lucky.” Starlight frowned. It seemed she was starting to put some pieces together. “So how do we stop it?” Applejack asked. “I don’t know.” I shook my head and looked down at the table, completely ashamed of my incompetence. “We never even learned what was making it happen, and without that we couldn’t know if we could make a cure, or if it could be stopped at all…” “But you know when it starts,” Starlight said. I nodded. “I don’t know the exact day, but I know it happened at Starlight’s village, during her coming trip there.” Again, there were gasps. Starlight winced. “But that’s tomorrow,” Rainbow Dash said. “I know.” I sighed. “I just couldn’t see a point in showing up any sooner. If all I know is when and where, our only real course of action is to be there to stop it.” “Um…” Fluttershy spoke up, her voice shaky. “W-Which element is going to…” Her voice trailed off, but I understood. My heart ached when I looked up at her. “It’s kindness.” Fluttershy let out a tiny whimper. Beside her, Pinkie reached out and put a hoof on her shoulder. I took another deep breath. “Fluttershy, I don’t want to scare you, but… You should brace yourself. If we fail, it’s not going to be pleasant.” Fluttershy was starting to tremble. I felt like a monster for putting her through this. “W-What’s going to happen to me?” Fluttershy mumbled. “I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to tell you that much,” I said. “Please,” Fluttershy said, “I need to know.” I looked down at the table, reluctant to say anything, but it wasn’t long before I sighed and gave in. “I never felt it myself,” I said, “but you always said it was like you’d lost a piece of yourself. Like there was a hole in who you were, not big enough to ruin your life, but not small enough to ever forget about it.” Fluttershy’s face fell. Her ears drooped, and she looked like she could barely focus. “I-I have to go,” she muttered, and before anypony could object she pushed away from the table and ran out the door. Pinkie ran out after her, but the rest of us were too shocked to move. “I’m sorry,” I finally muttered after a long, painful silence. “I shouldn’t have said anything.” “You couldn’t keep it from her,” Applejack said. “Like you said, if she knows, she can brace herself.” I nodded slowly. “Hopefully.” Twilight glanced at me, then cleared her throat. “Um, does anypony have any questions?” “Yeah, I do,” Rainbow Dash said. “Do we actually have a plan?” “Well,” I said, “if somepony is behind this, they almost certainly have to be nearby to do it. If we keep watch over the town, we’re bound to catch them in the act. And if we have everypony in town stay at home, if we fail we can keep it from spreading.” “We can’t just force a pony to live alone for the rest of their lives,” Starlight said. “Well, talk to them, then,” I told her. “Tell them what’s up, and let them all decide for themselves if they’re willing to stay in town afterward.” Starlight pursed her lips. “Fine, but if that’s the plan, I’m staying with them. I can’t let them do that alone.” “If that’s what you want, we can’t stop you,” I said. “Just, please, be sure that it’s what you want.” “I will,” Starlight said. The rest of the meeting didn’t amount to much. We worked out all the little details, schedules and patrol routes and the like. Fluttershy and Pinkie never showed back up, though, so there was only so much we could do. Besides that, it was mostly just questions I couldn’t answer. How fast did it spread, was there a limit to how many ponies it could affect, could a single element be target more than once, I didn’t know the answers to any of it. I’d only been here a day, and already I’d outlived my usefulness. After the meeting, Starlight came up and sat next to me. “Hey,” she said softly. I sighed. “Hi, Starlight. Are you okay?” She nodded. “Of course. I just, I was thinking while you talked, and I remembered how yesterday, in my office, you kept telling me you were sorry…” I put my head in my hooves. “Because I’m a failure. You were alone for years because of me.” “I’m sure you did all you could,” Starlight told me. “I never would have blamed you, even if I didn’t care about kindness.” “That doesn’t mean I didn’t deserve it.” Later that day, I was sitting at the table mindlessly eating lunch when a pony walked up behind me. “U-Um, Twilight?” Fluttershy’s voice was still just as shaky as that morning. “Can I talk to you?” “Of course,” I told her. I patted the table in front of the chair beside me, and she sat down. “Thank you,” she said. “I just… I’m frightened.” “That’s completely understandable,” I told her. “I promise, we’re going to do everything in our power to protect you.” “I know,” she said. “That’s not what I’m worried about.” I looked at her curiously. “What, then?” “Um…” She was looking hard away from me, anxiously tracing her hoof along the table. “Was it only me that got hurt?” I sighed. “At first,” I told her, “but… No. As the other elements were stolen, the others got hurt too.” She made a quiet, concerned noise. “Do you think…” She trailed off, and I placed a hoof gently on her back. “Don’t force yourself.” She shook her head. “How do you think that worked?” “What do you mean?” “I don’t really understand magic,” she said. “If specific ponies were being targeted, I was wondering if that meant that, um…” “If we were being targeted as well?” I suggested. She nodded. “It’s possible,” I said. “It certainly crossed my mind that we may have been the main targets all along.” “So, when kindness was taken away… Could it have targeted somepony else instead of me?” “I…” I hummed in thought. “Maybe, yes. I hadn’t thought of that, but I might be able to make some sort of magical lightning rod for that part of the spell. I’ll look into it, I’m sure any one of us would gladly take your place so you don’t—” “No!” She shook her head vigorously. “I don’t want anypony getting hurt to protect me.” “If any of us deserve protection, it’s you,” I said. “We all deserve protection,” she argued. “That’s why I…” She hummed nervously and started rubbing her leg. “Fluttershy, what is it?” She took a long, slow breath. “Would you be able to make them all hit me?” I jolted in shock. “What? Fluttershy, no, that’s—” “Please!” She looked desperately into my eyes and grabbed my shoulders. “I can’t bear the thought of any of you going through what you described, it hurts me more than any spell ever could. You have to.” “Fluttershy, I can’t.” I looked her straight in the eyes, as seriously as I could. “That way you feel about us is how we feel about you, too. None of us could ever do something so cruel to you.” Her lip trembled. “Twilight, please, I’m so scared for all of you.” “Hey. Look.” I put my legs on her shoulders, then pulled her into a hug. “We’re going to stop this. After you, it was years before anypony else got hurt. You won’t ever have to worry about them.” Fluttershy fell against me, and I heard her start to cry. “You have to be safe,” she mumbled. “I have to keep you all safe.” I squeezed her and slowly stroked her mane. “We’ll be safe.” She started to quiet down, but she only squeezed me tighter. I could barely hear her when under her breath she mumbled “I just want everypony to be okay.”