//------------------------------// // You're already dead (Rewritten) // Story: Soul Recovery // by Conglomerate //------------------------------// Rarity was not having a good time. Today had started out as any normal day, but then she got invited to Canterlot by none other than Princess Celestia herself! Truly an honor that only a select few would get the privilege of. Now though, Rarity wasn't so sure if that was a good thing. Everything felt off, which meant Rarity couldn't actually feel anything. Attempting to swivel her ears around yielded nothing, trying to lick her lips yielded nothing either, and having a go at smelling the air yielded nothing yet again. Something strange was going on. In a last ditch effort to experience something, Rarity opened her eyes. It was weird, but vision slowly returned to her. The world around her was a bit blurry, but she could make out her white coat and purple mane, as well as some other white thing in front of her. Her vision cleared a bit, and she inspected her muzzle, her white coat looked very dry, and almost solid. Her mane wasn't holding out much better either, as it was obviously frayed and unkempt. Trying to purse her lips in frustration yielded nothing once more. Finally, she got a good look at the white object in front of her, and she froze. There, a skeleton lay in a pile. It was a mess, with every bone in a jumble. The worst part about it however, was the signature rainbow colored mane of one of her friends, Rainbow Dash. Rarity screamed, loudly, and attempted to stand up. Rising much quicker than she normally could, she looked around frantically hoping this was some sort of prank. Around her lay three more skeletons, each with dry manes that matched her other friends as well. Rarity started hyperventilating, or at least she thought she did, as she still couldn't really feel if she was breathing or not. Sitting down in an attempt to calm herself, she raised a white hoof to try and nudge one of the skulls. Stopping herself, she looked at her foreleg, and noticed it was way too thin, almost like she was malnourished. Trailing up her leg, she looked straight down at her torso, and saw only the hollow ribcage of a skeleton, her skeleton. Rarity screamed even louder. One of the bone piles rustled, and she stopped screaming, mortified by the movement. Staring intensely at the pink-maned skeleton, it continued to shift. Then, as if moved by magic, it seemed to reassemble itself into the right shape. Bones swirled around as the ribcage was put back together, vertebrae came together to form a spine. Legs were formed and the joints popped into place, finally, the skull lifted and settled on top. The skeleton froze, almost as if staring right at Rarity, then it began frantically looking around, seeing the other skeletons laying on the ground nearby. Finally, it looked at itself, just like Rarity had, and then it simply fell back apart into a pile. Rarity winced, she could tell it was Fluttershy, the long pink mane was easily identifiable. Her feelings for her friend seemed to be stronger than her fear at this moment, and she trotted over towards her skeleton. "Fluttershy," Rarity started, surprised how smooth her voice was, "Fluttershy, it's okay darling, I'm here." The skeleton shifted a bit, and its skull floated up again. This time, the rest didn't reassemble, and the skull just floated a small distance off the ground, almost like she was looking up from the ground. The jaw opened, and familiar voice came out. "R-R-R-a-a-r-r-i-i-t-t-y?" Fluttershy asked shakily, "Yes darling, it's me. I don't know why we are like this, but I think we are fine for now... probably. I do believe we are in the Domain of the Dead." Rarity reassured, looking her skeletal hoof over. "Y-y-o-u l-look s-c-c-ary." Fluttershy said, her bones rattling a bit. "As do you, darling, but as far as I can tell, we are all here. The others are just around, though none have woken up just yet," Rarity explained, "I hope they don't get too scared." Fluttershy paused for a moment "Is Twilight here?" "I haven't seen her, which means we have to go find her. Do you think you can help me wake the others?" Rarity asked. "S-Sure," Fluttershy answered meekly, looking over at Rainbow Dash's skeleton. Trotting over to Applejack's skeleton herself, Rarity thought on how to actually wake her. Tapping her hoof lightly on the skull didn't have any reaction, and neither did speaking to her. With a defeated sigh, Rarity instead walked over to Pinkie Pie's skeleton. Leaning down close to the skull, where the ears would normally be, Rarity tried the one thing that she was sure would work. "Parties," she whispered into Pinkie Pie's 'ear'. In an instant, the skeleton jumped up, so fast it actually knocked Rarity's head off, it landed a few meters away. Pinkie Pie quickly assembled herself, and once she was 'whole', she looked around, a bit confused. "Pinkie!" Rarity shouted from her spot on the ground, the rest of her skeleton stumbling around blindly. "What? Oh. EEEEEEK!" Pinkie Pie shrieked, having looked at Rarity's predicament. "Calm down Pinkie! I'm fine... I think, just give me a moment." Rarity said, Concentrating hard, she was eventually able to walk her body towards her head, where an invisible force allowed her skull to raise up and reconnect with the neck. The whole process made her shudder a bit, everything felt unnatural. "Woah! Why do you look like that? Why do I look like this?! What is even going on?!" Pinkie Pie started rambling. "Pinkie! Please let me explain darling. We are in the Domain of the Dead, we haven't seen Twilight just yet, so we have to keep searching and... Are you even listening?" Rarity asked, "Huh? Oh yeah, we have to find Twilight. This is just so cool." Pinkie said, somehow turning her head a full 360°. Rarity would've gagged if she could. "Please stop that darling, it's terrifying." She pleaded. It was at this point that Fluttershy somehow managed to wake up Rainbow Dash, and the pegasus quickly made herself known. Mainly by screaming. "AAAH! What the hay?!" She yelled, looking at Fluttershy. "Rainbow Dash. You're awake. Please don't be scared," Fluttershy said, "Fluttershy? Why do you look like that, it's kinda awesome," Then Rainbow Dash looked around, and spotted her other friends standing nearby. "Woah, wait, does that mean I look cool too?" Closely inspecting herself, Rainbow Dash was at a loss for words. "Awesome..." Then something else made itself apparent. "Wait! My wings! Tell me I can still fly." Looking at both Fluttershy's and Rainbow's backs, both of their wings were bare. Much like their legs, only the bones remained. Giving them experimental flaps, no lift was achieved. "Aww man..." Rainbow Dash sighed. "Hey! It's not so bad, you could probably do some other cool things with those! Like this!" Pinkie Pie said, and in an attempt to cheer Rainbow Dash up, she grabbed her wing and then proceeded to bend the joint the complete wrong way. "HEY… Whoa, now that is pretty cool." Rainbow Dash said, bending her wings in every direction, almost like tentacles. "Rainbow please, that's making me sick." Rarity said, turning to look away. "Hey, it's not like this hurts or anything, I don't see anything wrong with doing it. Besides, can you even get sick?" Rainbow Dash shot back, "I don't know Rainbow, but please try not to do that too often." Rarity pleaded. "I can’t guarantee you anything. By the way, where exactly are we?" Rainbow asked. "The Domain of the Dead, I think," Rarity answered, "I get that, but where are in the 'Domain of the Dead'?" Rainbow Dash reiterated. It was at this point that everypony awake looked around, trying to find out exactly where they were. There was no sun in the sky, yet everything remained well lit, it was impossible to tell what time it was, or if it even turned night. The group appeared to be in a desert, with grey-yellow sand dunes rising up all around them. It didn't feel hot, and there wasn't any type of wind or breeze. Everything was dead silent. "Rainbow Dash, could you please try to wake up Applejack? I'm going to go up and see what's around." Rarity said, taking charge of the group for now, Rainbow Dash nodded, and walked over to Applejack's skeleton. Meanwhile, Rarity made her way up one of the dunes surrounding them. The sand shifted a bit beneath her hooves, but it otherwise wasn't too difficult to make it up. Rarity was just thankful that she didn't have a coat to get a bunch of sand stuck in. At the top of the dune, Rarity could see for quite a bit, and turning around in circles yielded her desert, desert, desert, and more des- Oh wait, there's a town over there. It was just barely peeking up above another large dune. "I believe there’s a town in that direction. How are things going with Applejack?" Rarity shouted down to the rest of the group, "No dice!" Rainbow Dash shouted back up, by the looks of it, she had resorted to scattering Applejack's skeleton all around the sand. Rarity walked back down the dune, and thought for a moment. "Well we can't just leave her here, help me gather her up." Rarity commanded, and began moving bones into a pile. Thankfully her magic still worked, and she could tell Rainbow Dash was a bit envious. It didn't take long to gather all of Applejack, but now was the problem of carrying her. Without her being conscious, none of her bones stuck together, which made it impossible to assemble anything out of her either. Rarity was just glad she didn't have to defile her friend. "I suppose I could carry her for a bit, but I won't be able to do it for too long. We should head to that town I spotted earlier, maybe we can get some information or help there." Rarity said, "Is that really a good idea?" Rainbow Dash asked, "Do we have any other options, darling?" Rarity retorted. "Fair enough," Rainbow Dash replied. The experience from working on multiple dresses at once definitely helped Rarity move Applejack, and while she wasn't 'In the moment', she could easily carry her a fair distance. "Let’s get going shall we? We still have to find Twilight." Rarity said, The group began making their way up the large dune and towards the distant town Rarity saw. Looking ahead, it would be a few hours before they made it to the town. They had to cross a large portion of desert to get there. "This would be so much easier if I could just fly!" Rainbow Dash cried out. "Then how will the rest of us get there darling?" Rarity asked inquisitively. "Well... Look, I don't know, but I do know that I really want to fly." Rainbow Dash complained, "Haven't you gone longer without flying?" Pinkie Pie asked. "Well yeah, but this is different, all we are doing right now is walking. I had other things to do back then. This is so boring," Rainbow Dash said, "There are many things to do darling. We're all here, are you calling us boring? Are you calling this place boring? Though I'll admit this desert is rather drab." Rarity retorted, Rainbow Dash sighed, "No Rarity, but we have to walk for a long time, and that is going to be boring," "That may be, but remember who we're doing this for, just deal with it," Rarity said. "Ok fine" Rainbow Dash said, then fell silent. "Did you just see that!?" Pinkie Pie shouted out of nowhere, completely surprising the rest of the group. "What Pinkie? Where?" Rainbow Dash asked, "LOOK!" Pinkie Pie shouted, gesturing towards the distant town, which was now a bit closer. All the ponies awake looked over to the town, a majority of it was still blocked by a large dune, but they could still see the tops of the buildings. A brilliant flash of color lit up the sky, then another, and another. An array of fireworks were being set off one after another. "Oooh, those look dazzling," Rarity spoke, "DO YOU KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS!?" Pinkie Pie shouted to the group, it was a wonder Applejack still hadn't woken up, "What?" Rainbow Dash asked, "They're having a party! Without ME! We have to get there now!" Though she couldn't show much facial expression, everypony could tell Pinkie Pie was determined to go to whatever party they were celebrating over there. "How are we supposed to get over there so fast darling?" Rarity asked, she was beginning to feel the drag from carrying Applejack so long, "Simple, we run!" Pinkie Pie shouted, before taking off at full speed towards the town. "Pinkie! Wait!" Rainbow Dash shouted after her, The group looked at each other, they all knew what it was like when Pinkie Pie got this way. With some quick nods, the rest began galloping after her. It was strange, despite running non stop for about thirty or so minutes, none of the ponies felt any fatigue, it was like they could just keep going and going. Rainbow Dash was obviously the fastest of the group, but even she couldn't keep up with the determined Pink Party Pony, who had begun to leave a small trail of pink colored fire behind her. It almost looked like her mane was set ablaze. While Rarity could run a bit faster than Fluttershy, having to carry Applejack made it so they were running at about the same speed. By now, Pinkie Pie had made it to the large dune that blocked the view of the town, and upon cresting the top, she stopped deader in her tracks. Her smoking figure appeared to cool down, the fires along her back fizzling out. A minute later, Rainbow also made it to the top, and also stopped. Then both Fluttershy and Rarity made it up with Applejack still unconscious. Everypony stopped and gawked at what lay before them. What was once thought to be a town obscured by a large dune, turned out to be a massive city with only the tops of the tallest buildings rising above the dune. Fireworks were still being set off, and the faint sound of festival music permeated the air. The ponies couldn't see much movement down below, but they could hear the faint echoes of a crowd. Pinkie Pie was so excited, her bones were closely mimicking a xylophone with all her shaking. "HEEEELLLLLOOOOOO, NEWLYDEADS!" A voice came from the bottom of the dune. Looking down, the group spotted another pony skeleton, obviously waving towards them with one hoof, beckoning them to come closer. Climbing down the dune, the group arrived face to face with the newcomer. "Hello... I'm sorry, but what did you call us?" Rarity asked, a bit confused. "Why Newlydeads of course, judging by the fact that I've never seen you before, I'd say it's safe to assume you all recently died." The skeleton said. "That's... true... I guess, could you tell us where we are?" Rarity asked, "Now that my dear, is a question I can answer. WELCOME! To Mortemopolis! The best place to rest in peace!" The pony exclaimed, "OOH OOH! That sounds fun! What's happening? Why are there fireworks? Can I help? I love parties?" Pinkie Pie asked in quick succession, "Whoa Whoa! Slow down, I don't think that last one was even a question. I can tell you what's happening however. Right now, the whole of Mortemopolis is celebrating..." The pony paused for dramatic effect, "The death of an alicorn!" He finished, "What!?" All the other ponies asked in unison. "You all sure picked a great time to die, the festivities are starting right now!" The mysterious pony said. To Be Continued...