"FLUTERSHY!"
Twilight rammed her hoof repeatedly against the cottage door, hoping her loud banging would quickly summon her shy friend. Her hopes were not unfounded, as the pegasus soon peered through a slight crack at the unicorn. "Um... hello, Twilight. And, um... pony... under a sheet?"
"It's me, Shy," Dash said flatly.
"...oh." Fluttershy sighed, letting the door swing open and backing up. "Alright... come on in, I won't resist." She sat on her couch dejectedly as her friends stepped into her parlor, rubbing her hoof nervously.
The librarian and the weathermare shared a look.
"....soooo, um." Twilight shut the door quietly. "You... can do dark magic?"
"...yes."
"Are you, um, aware that it's illegal without a permit?"
"Oh I have a permit!" Fluttershy reassured quickly. "It's... a bit old, but I think it's still valid!"
The unicorn blinked. "O...oh. That's surprising.... can I see it?"
"Ah..." The pegasus opened and closed her mouth a few times. Then, with a sigh, she got up. "Well, I suppose you were going to figure it out anyway."
She trotted over to a cabinet, opening a drawer. Twilight and Rainbow watched as she reached in, shifted something around... and pulled the drawer out even further then it had been, to the point where it was three times as long as the cabinet itself. Fluttershy glanced up, giving the physical impossibility a sheepish wave, before reaching in and grabbing a mahogony box. Then she pushed the drawer back to its normal length, shifted something inside it, and shut it entirely.
"That..." Rainbow Dash stared at the cabinet in shock. "That... how...?
"That's a, a, a high level quantum extension enchantment!" Twilight pointed at the drawer. "That... you're a pegasus! How did you do that?!"
"Well, carving the runes in was tedious, but actually rather easy. Gathering the magic and channeling it took about a week, though." The pegasus nudged the box forward. "The... permit is in there."
Cautiously, Twilight opened the lid, noticing the preservation runes carved on its inner surface. She levitated out a scroll, noting how aged it looked, and unrolled it slowly.
"...Fluttershy, this is a proclamation from princess Luna dated a thousand and two hundred years ago."
"It's still binding, right?"
The unicorn giggled nervously. "Well, um, it would be if, well, you were around more then a millennium ago."
Fluttershy gave her a flat look.
"...no. No no no, you can't be serious."
"You're a thousand years old?!" Rainbow cried, backing up and accidentally dropping her sheet.
"Well... more then a thousand..." the other pegasus admitted sheepishly.
"But, but, but... Flight camp! Filly! You... how?!"
Fluttershy blushed. "Well, um... it's a bit... er... personal."
"I AM A ZOMBIE AND YOU ARE A THOUSAND YEARS OLD WE ARE WAY BEYOND PERSONAL!"
"DASH!" Twilight glared at her undead friend. "Calm down! This is shocking, but Fluttershy is still our friend!"
"Thank you, Twilight--"
The unicorn whirled on Fluttershy quickly. "But that doesn't mean you're out of it yet. I want you to explain, exactly, how this all happened."
The pegasus nodded.
"Right." Twilight sat down, rolling up the scroll and putting it back in the box. "Let's begin. Why did you approach the princess with a request for the right to practice dark magic?
"At the time I was... infertile." Fluttershy shivered. "No, actually... My husband and I had been trying for a foal, but... we only ever got stillborns."
Twilight blinked, blushing a bit. "Ah... um. Wow. I... you were..." She tapped her hooves together.
"Yes. I was."
"I thought you were a virgin," Rainbow said, staring at her.
"Oh, well I am. Well, I mean, I'm not but--" The yellow pegasus shook her head. "Well, after I got the license for black magic, I found out what was wrong. My body could make new... ponies, but not new souls."
Twilight blinked. "I... huh?"
"It's only detectable with dark magic, but... when a mother is pregnant, part of her soul splits off to grow into a new one. Completely natural, perfectly normal. I couldn't do that, though..." Fluttershy sighed. "Not without help. So, I... crafted a spell. And, um... it worked. Kind of."
Rainbow Dash cocked her head. "Kind of...?"
"It... was meant to suction a small part of my soul into the child body." Fluttershy raised her eyes up. "But it didn't stop. All through my pregnancy, I grew weaker as it grew stronger... until I gave birth. And then I died."
"Because your soul was in the foal," Twilight whispered.
"Yes."
There was silence in the cottage for a long moment.
Rainbow Dash coughed. "That... that must have been awkward for your husband..."
"Believe me, Dash, you have no idea."
"So that's it?" Twilight shook her head. "You just... every time you were about to die, you got knocked up and cast that spell again?"
"Um... yes." Fluttershy shuffled her hooves nervously. "And I kept studying dark magic and... all kinds of magic, really. I never could get, um, my soul to split though... I think it might be because I want to give all of myself. I can't just give part of me."
"Okay, that... makes a weird amount of sense."
The undead pony in the room stepped forward, wrapping her rotting forelegs around the other pegasus. "Hey. This is a bit... bit much for me to take in, but you're still my friend. And I won't ever stop being your friend. Okay?"
Fluttershy smiled. "Okay.... thank you."
"But... um..." Rainbow Dash gave her an awkward, rotting grin. "I was just wondering... can I not be a zombie anymore?"