//------------------------------// // Chapter 5 - The Pink Thing // Story: The Stereotypical Necromancer // by JinxTJL //------------------------------// Light Flow was currently very confused. It had been about a week since he had first experimented with the bunny. He had to admit... His first exposure to a dead creature wasn't at all what he had dreamed it to be. Sure, touching the dead body and sniffing it and stuff had been exciting for a while, but... The excitement had faded quickly, and a growing empty feeling had begun to fill his chest. He felt... sorry for the creature. He had felt disgust with himself, and he had begun to regret disturbing the bunny like that. He wasn't afraid to admit it. After all, even villains have regrets. He just wished he hadn't cried himself to sleep. But he had moved past it. The very next day, he pulled the bunny out again so that he could begin killing his feelings on the matter. His books taught him that morals slowly crumbled over time, given enough exposure. Sure, maybe he had cried a little when he saw it again, but he stopped eventually! Unfortunately, the bunny began to decompose only a short two days later, so he was only able to gain so much familiarity with it. He observed the decomposition process for a while, but... he found that he wasn't quite ready for that. After forcibly emptying his stomach, he buried the horseshoe box like he was meant to in the first place. He got on with his life. He continued to re-read the Necromancy fiction available to him, while also expanding his knowledge on anatomy. He didn't really like learning about the topic, since it was boring and sort of gross; but it was a science closely intertwined with the magic of Necromancy, so it was absolutely worth knowing. Regardless, the events of the past week were only slightly related to the phenomenon that was currently occurring on his doorstep. Light Flow was confused. This was because there was a vibrating pink mass standing on his doorstep holding a cupcake. It was rapidly chattering in what he assumed was a foreign language, since he didn't understand a word of it. It was also gesturing wildly, and waving the aforementioned cupcake around in a haphazard manner. What he assumed was an undulating pink tentacle finally shoved the cupcake into his face, and he managed to make out the tail end of the essay that was just fired at him. "-so what do you think!" The creature finally stopped vibrating, and was now smiling at him widely while periodically bobbing the appendage holding the cupcake. Now that he got a good look at it, it didn't seem to be a horrible pink blob come to devour him. It looked like.... a pony? The pony herself was, in a word, pink. Her mane was pink, and extremely messy. Her coat was pink, though it was quite a bit neater than the disaster that she called a mane. Her eyes were... okay well her eyes were a pretty shade of baby blue, but nearly everything else was pink! He would even go so far as to say that her personality could be considered pink. She was bouncy, hyper, and animated; which were all things that could bring the word pink to his mind. The only thing besides her eyes that wasn't pink was her cutie mark. He knew it was impolite to stare at a thing like that, but he never cared much for social niceties, no matter how much his mother tried to beat the lessons into his head. The cutie mark in question was a trio of balloons, one yellow and two blue. It was kind of plain, but he supposed he didn't have any sort of room to talk, considering his own lack of a special talent. Finished with his examination, he quickly flicked his eyes away from the filly's butt. He furrowed his brow, and stared at the hyperactive.. pony, with great apprehension. He glanced down at the cupcake warily, and read the words 'Feel Better!' written on it in what seemed to be vanilla frosting. The cupcake itself looked pretty good now that he thought about it. It looked to be red velvet, which happened to be his favorite flavor of cupcake. Wait... He narrowed his eyes in suspicion. As far as a cautious pony like him was concerned, there were no coincidences. Somehow, this... thing, had found out his favorite flavor! He didn't know how. He certainly didn't tell her! Did she somehow extract it from his brain? Could she read minds?! What other powers did she have?! He panicked for a moment, before realizing how ridiculous that was. He brought himself down to Equus, and took a mental step back. This was clearly a normal, albeit hyper, earth pony filly. She probably used more regular tactics to learn about his preferred flavor. It's likely she just asked someone who knew. But... what if they wouldn't give her the info? What if she was forced to resort to more extreme measures? Maybe she was forced to torture them? Who had she tortured?! Come to think of it...his mother hadn't been home all day. She had only said that she was going out for a bit. She should have been home by now! The market isn't that far away! His head spun as he quickly jumped to the worst possible conclusion. What had this monster done to his mother?! As Light Flow was busy internally exploding, Pinkie Pie was beginning to become a bit worried. The poor pony with the dead bunny she had come to cheer up was just sort of standing around with a vacant look on his face. She began to worry that she had done something wrong. Maybe ponies here didn't give cupcakes as gifts? She had only been in town for about two weeks now, maybe there was some sort of rule she didn't know about that prohibited unsolicited cupcake giving! Pinkie Pie continued to stand there with the cupcake in her hoof, her big grin having slipped off her face in favor of a small, worried frown. She didn't wanna go to jail... Meanwhile, Light Flow had managed to wrangle his thoughts into something resembling normal. He drew in a deep breath, startling the other pony out of her own reverie. He blinked rapidly, trying to figure out when his thoughts had derailed so thoroughly from reality. He was similarly startled out of his reverie when the definitely-normal pink pony spoke in a low unsteady tone. "U-Um. It's not... illegal to give cupcakes in this town right?" Light Flow was thoroughly baffled by the odd question. He didn't think it was illegal to give cupcakes anywhere in Equestria. He looked at the pink pony with squinted eyes, and noticed something strange. Was her mane... deflating? "No, it's not." He spoke slowly, and carefully. Truth be told, he was still a little discombobulated from his earlier mental breakdown, and the slow canter of his sentence was more for his own benefit than it was for the strangers'. The pony seemed to perk up at that, and her mane almost puffed back up to what it was before. A smaller smile than she wore earlier grew on her face, and her eyes regained some of the excitement they had before. "O-Okay.. So.. Um.. This is for you!" She said brightly, once more shoving the cupcake into his hoof. His eyes glanced down to the cupcake now in his grasp, before focusing themselves on the pony offering it. He stared at her for a moment. "Why are you giving this to me?" he questioned in an even tone. Now that he was calm, he could work his metaphorical magic by intimidating her into leaving him alone. The pink pony's face twisted in confusion, before she snorted once, and began giggling uncontrollably. She fell onto her back, limbs flailing all around as she writhed in what could have been reasonably mistaken for agony. He watched her, face set in a thoroughly confused expression, as he wondered what could possibly be so funny about his simple question. Is this pony... okay? He grimaced down at the laughing pony, and idly wondered what should be done about the current situation. It was quite apparent to him now that, even though she couldn't read minds, it didn't mean that she was... normal. Villains did have a tendency to hang around the mentally ill, if they weren't wrong in the head themselves, that is. But since he was reasonably sure that his faculties were in order, he supposed that it wouldn't hurt to befriend his first crazy pony. ...Or maybe not. He stepped back from his doorstep, still holding the cupcake, and shut the door in front of him. He waited silently until he heard the laughing of the crazy pony stop, and allowed himself to sigh in relief. He might've been a villain, but that pony kind of creeped him out. While having a sidekick seemed cool in his head, he would rather it was a sane pony. Plus, he just didn't really want it to be her. He turned around, intent on taking the cupcake to his kitchen to eat in peace, before coming face to face with two huge baby blue circles. He screamed in a decidedly less-than dastardly fashion as he jumped back. The cupcake flew from his hoof and impacted with his ceiling with a 'splat'. He stared up at his lost confectionary for a moment while he held his chest, feeling the way his heart beat against his ribs frantically. He took note of the way it threatened to escape, much like a caged bird would. He made a further note to make a new entry in his book of dark poetry. Regardless, he managed to tear his eyes away from the tragic murder of his cupcake, and focused himself fully on the intruder in his home. The crazy pink pony was staring up at the cupcake as well, wearing a small frown. "Well why'd you go and do that?" She muttered before turning those big blue eyes on him. She spoke more directly to him, though she was still frowning: "I made that cupcake special for you! And now it's on the ceiling!" She suddenly gasped, and her expression brightened. "I just got an idea! A cupcake fight! That'd be so fun, and so tasty too, and everypony would get all covered in cupcake, and then everypony'd get to eat the cupcake off themselves, though if everypony wasn't really clean it'd probably be really dangerous, but that wouldn't be an issue as long as everypony bathed before hoof, but there's no real way to force everypony to shower so there's no real way to make it safe, and if it's not safe then it's not fun and-" The definitely-crazy and almost-certainly-dangerous pony advanced on him slowly, her mouth running a mile a minute. He backed away at the same pace she walked towards him, until his butt hit the door behind him. He glanced behind him at the closed door before looking fearfully at the pony who was now talking directly in his face. He tried to focus his thoughts, but the pony currently pressing herself into his face made it difficult. He couldn't think, but he knew he was afraid. He had never had anypony besides his mother force themselves so close to him before. He drew in short gasps as his eyes filled with hot liquid. This was it. He knew. This was how he was going to die. Cut down in his own home by a crazy pony. His mother was going to come home to find his cooling corpse on the floor of their living room. He screwed his eyes shut, and let out a small sob. He didn't want to die. His scattered thoughts gathered around the image of a white bunny sitting in a box. He remembered the cold feeling of the body, and he imagined himself in the same position. He imagined the warmth of his coat fading away, and the steady beat of his heart coming to a stop. He imagined the light in his eyes going out, and his thoughts and dreams leaking out of his head, and scattering on the wind. Somepony help him..! He slumped down on the floor and made himself as small as possible. He tucked his ears close to his head, and covered his face with his hooves. He hoped that the crazy pony didn't make him suffer. He knew villains were supposed to like suffering, but... "There was so much I wanted to do..." He lay there in a ball on the floor, shuddering and sniffling in fear as he waited for his impending doom, before he felt a hoof nudge into his side. "Hey.. Hey! Are you okay? Do you need some help? O-Or a cupcake?" He didn't even hear the words. His mind was swirling around and around. His thoughts and feelings zipping around chaotically, as if they were caught in some sort of storm. He saw pictures, and he struggled to make them out. A bunny rabbit, a brown pegasus stallion, a pair of orange hooves, a soft white face. At the very center of the maelstrom of these thoughts, feelings, and memories lay his simplest and most base desire. A desire that exists deep in the hearts of every living creature. Something he hadn't realized he wanted so badly until now. He wanted to live. His eyes slowly struggled open as more tears leaked out. His vision was blurry, and all he could see from his position on the floor was a plain white wall. His short gasps and fevered panting turned to deep, gasping breaths; almost as if he was struggling to breathe. The air felt hot in his lungs, and it burned his mouth every time he inhaled. He grit his teeth, and pressed his tongue against the back of them. He felt his heart beat hard against his chest. It was warm. He was alive. He wanted to stay that way. He slowly put his hooves under him, and pushed himself up. He stood shakily on unsteady hooves as he stared at the stupid plain brown floors that he had always hated. A small wet spot had gathered around where he had pressed his face against it, and an idle thought crossed his suddenly adrenaline-fueled mind. He wondered if the wood would stain. He turned his plain brown eyes from the stupid plain brown floor and focused them on the ugly blue eyes of the pink assassin who had taken a step back from him. He saw her mouth move, but he didn't hear the lies that spewed forth. He knew it was all an act. She had come here to kill him, he knew. That cupcake was probably poisoned. No, he was sure of it. "Get out" He managed to choke out in an unsteady tone. His teeth ground against each other heavily, and he could still feel the tears in his eyes; but he didn't care. He just wanted it to leave. He wanted it to die. The dumb pink mouth moved again, but he cut it off. "I said get out!" He said in a louder voice than before. He was gaining ground against his fear, filling the empty space with anger. Fear had its place, but his anger would keep him alive. "Get out!" He screamed at the pink. His vision was so blurry, he could only make out the vague shape of it, but he knew he was having an effect. The ugly pink splotch in the sea of red was shaking violently, leaving faint afterimages. Or maybe it was just moving that quickly, he didn't care. Celestia, how he hated pink. "LEAVE!" He roared gutturally, spit flying from his mouth. The pink finally turned around and ran away into a throbbing mass of browns and whites and red. Good. He hoped it would get lost in there. He stood there, heaving great burning breaths as his anger slowly faded. The rage he had felt in response to his life being threatened slowly abated, and was replaced by an empty feeling. As the emptiness grew, and his legs began shaking under him; the red in his vision slowly bled away. He felt a sob force its way out of his mouth. His legs gave out, and he crashed to the floor. He felt the hollow feeling in his chest slowly force its way up his throat, and into his mouth. He tasted something vile, and he vomited onto the floor. He felt the substance seep into his fur from where it was pressed to the ground, and he closed his eyes in a mixture of shame and apathy. When Light Flow's mother came home an hour later, she found a cupcake on the ceiling, and her son lying in the living room, silently sobbing in a puddle of vomit and tears. She also found the separate trail of tears leading away from him, and up to their open kitchen window.