//------------------------------// // Funeral and Dream // Story: Trials of Blood and Kindness // by CommanderX5 //------------------------------// Trials of Blood and Kindness - Chapter 7 Funeral and Dream Silence… Not a single noise echoed as the young mare walked through the fog. Despite being a pure blooded thestral whose eyes could see in the dark as if it was day, the fog was a challenge even for her sight. Minutes seemed like an eternity as she walked by a sea of graves. Chills went through her bones and her steps became slower as three gravestones with familiar names caught her attention. As she approached, she noticed three coffins half emerged from the ground. Around them was a large open area with nopony in sight. Her legs started shaking as the silence was broken by sobs. She looked around, but couldn’t see anything besides the fog, yet the sound of crying still reached her ears. Fluttershy bent her legs and whimpered like a puppy before approaching the coffins. She straightened her trembling foreleg and opened the left one hesitantly, terrified of what she may see. She gasped the moment the lid was removed. In the open coffin she could see her mother: a dark-gray batpony with black-violet wings who seemed to sleep peacefully, forelegs crossed on her chest. “Mommy…” Fluttershy said as she poked her mother’s forelegs. “Mom, please, wake up. I’m scared.” She carefully lifted a foreleg, but dropped it at the sight of a pierced heart and the mark of a blade around her neck. Fluttershy ignored the wealthy and fashionable decorations on the coffins as the wounds on her mother caught all her attention. Fluttershy screamed and withdrew her hoof immediately. She turned to the right and saw the coffin open on its own, revealing her father who had similar injuries, the very view crushing her already broken heart. Feeling a growing urge to retreat from the scene and cry, she took one quick look at the closed coffin in the middle, but didn’t dare to touch it. Fluttershy turned around and started sobbing as memories of her parents’ death flashed in front of her, as if images of this event took physical form in front of her, unsure if they were memories or dreams? The moment her mother’s head fell and was captured by the hunter, the image disappeared, and a noise from behind made her turn around. She turned back, only to see the lifeless corpses of her parents. Their black, empty eyes froze the vampony's blood, their calling voices filling her young mind with terror. She lost her balance and curled up in fear, placing her forelegs on her crying eyes. Seconds passed in which she could no longer hear any noises. She peeked from behind her foreleg, and both the coffins and her parents had disappeared. As Fluttershy stood up, all she could see was white fog, to the point that neither her own hooves or the ground were visible. Despite the fog, she could still make out the coffin in the middle, but she wasn’t planning to find out what was inside any time soon. She turned around and galloped through the mist. Minutes passed until she sat to take a few quick breaths, before looking behind her. Her heart nearly escaped her chest as she still saw the coffin. Fluttershy tried walking backwards, but the distance didn’t seem to increase. Unable to escape and with nowhere to go, she gulped and slowly opened the coffin. Her blood instantly froze in her veins as she saw herself without a disguise, a yellow thestral in a white dress decorated with red bats. She was smiling gracefully while holding a white lily, bouquets of red roses gracing her body. Fluttershy couldn’t tell if her copy was sleeping or... dead? She lowered herself to take a closer look. When her foreleg was about to touch its cheek, the corpse grabbed Fluttershy’s foreleg and opened its eyes, asking, “Why are you still alive?” Starled, Fluttershy quickly lost her balance and released a scream of terror. The corpse rose and looked at her with black eyes. “Why are you not here instead of your mom and dad?” Marks of a pierced heart and slashed neck appeared on the corpse, and black tears formed in its eyes. Fluttershy struggled to free her hoof, but couldn’t overpower it. “L-leave me alone!” The fake Fluttershy shook her head. “You should be lying in a coffin instead of them. They stayed in the mansion just to search for you, dying so you could escape. It is all your fault!” Fluttershy closed her eyes in fear. After several seconds of struggling, when she no longer felt anything hold her foreleg, she opened her eyes. Fluttershy gasped, finding herself inside the casket with her parents sealing her in it despite her pleas. She struggled to move, but couldn’t as darkness overtook her. Fluttershy fell from her cloudy bed right onto the floor, barely feeling the impact with the soft surface, her breath heavy and sweat covering her forehead. She wiped tears from her bloodshot eyes and looked around in panic, before taking a calm breath and murmuring to herself, “It… was just a dream.” Her peace of mind didn’t last even two seconds, as a knock to the door startled her. “Please wake up, Fluttershy,” the muffled voice of Rainbowshine talking from behind the door reached her ears. “Your parents funeral will start soon. I know it must be hard, but you won’t have a chance to say goodbye to them if you oversleep.” The pureblood still trapped in the body of a filly scratched her head. Funeral… now I remember. I probably took a nap. Like an avalanche, the memories from her dream surfaced, making Fluttershy drop to the floor and hide under her forelegs. Those dreams had been haunting her ever since she escaped her demise two weeks ago. With slow steps, she approached a small mirror on her shelf. Her eyes were bloodshot and she had bags under her eyelids. “Sweetheart, we are running low on time.” Fluttershy took a deep breath. "I won't go." The door slowly opened as Dash’s mother entered, her face filled with worry. “Would you please repeat it, dear?” “I said… I won’t go.” *** Fluttershy had to endure several minutes of discussion with Dash and her family, who tried to convince her to come. Eventually, she was left inside an empty room, the room that her friend’s family generously provided her. Now deep in thought, she rubbed the soft floor with her forehoof before flying up to the window. She opened the curtains and let rays of the sun bash against her face, an unpleasant feeling she was familiar with. “Is this… really my fault? Mom, Dad? Are you dead because of me?” The clear sky above Cloudsdale did little to calm her nerves, and her ears dropped. Ever since she witnessed the death of her parents, she could no longer close her eyes without having the same nightmare yet again, and no matter what she did in her dreams, the outcome was always the same. The vampony touched her chest, feeling the emptiness in her heart. Why was she alive? Why didn’t she die instead of everypony else in the mansion? Besides Dash, she was alone. Fluttershy shook her head, Stop thinking about it. You aren’t a filly, you are a nearly century old pureblood, act your age, she tried to convince herself, but her resolve burned out faster than a candle on a birthday cake. Fluttershy sat by the window, resting her head on her forelegs and thinking. What’s the point of me living. It is nothing but misery. Kindness, compassion, empathy, the principles my parents taught me and followed themselves… they were the cause of their death. How can I survive by following them? It will only lead me to my demise. She sighed. What's the point of prolonging it? Fluttershy raised her head and looked at the unwelcoming sun. The same sun that the princess raised and lowered for her little ponies everyday. The sun that only hurts her and her kind. I can end this, here and now… She walked away from the window and sat in the middle of the room, her forelegs spread as if welcoming the weakening light. Only a few hours, and I will see my mom and dad again. That’s all it takes. Much to the surprise of Dash's parents, there weren’t many ponies present, as if the servants and masters themselves didn't have anypony to grieve their loss. As odd as it was sounded, Blaze and Shine ignored it and focused on showing respect to the parents of their daughter’s friend. In front of them they could see several jars of ashes, since bodies couldn’t be recovered from the burned mansion. Each jar had a name inscribed on it and lain on a pillow, which were positioned on several shelves attached to a wall. They didn’t know why the filly wanted to stay dead in everyone’s eyes, but it was her wish, and they had no right to refuse it. Following their promise, no one corrected the speaker when Fluttershy’s name was mentioned among the dead. After giving her respect to the jars belonging to Sample Taker and Clean Mouth, Dash walked back to her own parents and whispered, “Mom, Dad.” “Yes, dear?” Rainbowshine asked quietly. “Can I go home? I want to check on Flutters.” Both parents looked at each other before nodding. “Okay dear, just don’t stop anywhere and don’t talk to strangers.” “Mom, I’m not a filly, I can take care of myself,” Dash responded, and flew away before she could be lectured or patted on the head. Suddenly, she was interrupted as she crashed into another pony. "Sorry," she said, before returning a now empty water bottle to its owner, and shaking her wet head and coat. “It is quite alright,” the pegasus said. His wings flapped firmly, a cape and bronze coat covering most of his body. “Just be careful next time, child.” “Will do,” Dash replied before flying away. The coated pegasus looked back at the bottle of water and said to himself, “No reaction. She is clear.” His attention switched to the rest of the ponies who attended the funeral, and he smirked. "Water charged with white magic is such an useful tool. Just a mere drop, and I will find the monsters who dare to lay their hooves in those holy grounds." “Fluttershy, I’m home!” Dash said as she knocked again against the door, but nopony answered. “Can you hear me?” After a minute of silence, she pushed the door open and entered, and what she saw knocked her from her hooves. Her friend was lying in the middle of the room basking in the rays of the sun, a few burning marks already covering her body. Not wasting a moment, she dashed to the window, closed the curtains, and pulled her friend towards the wall. She shook Fluttershy and shouted, “What were you thinking?” With her friend still unconscious, Dash placed her on the bed and trotted in place on her hooves in panic. “What do I do, what do I do?” She looked towards the open door and spread her wings. “Water!” Without a second thought, she dashed to the kitchen and grabbed an empty cup. She filled it by transforming some part of the cloud furniture into a rain cloud and flew back to Fluttershy. Carefully using her foreleg to prop her friend’s head up, she tilted the cup so water could get into Fluttershy's mouth, before splashing the rest against her face. She shook her friend once again. “Please, wake up!” Much to her relief, those bloodshot eyes slowly opened. “Rainbow… is that you?” “Of course it’s me. How are you feeling?” “T-tired,” Fluttershy responded, and a sad smile spread across her face. “Why did you stop me? I was about to see my parents again.” Tears formed in Dash’s eyes, her foreleg trembling. She wanted nothing more than to slap Fluttershy for saying such a thing. Instead, she embraced Fluttershy in a strong hug and said in a whisper, “And leave me? I am your friend for Celestia’s sake. I didn’t help you escape from your mansion and bring you here so I could lose you.” “B-but…” “I won’t let you leave. You saved my life, and I am not going to let you lose yours.” The embrace tightened, as sobbing broke Dash’s words. “I know it must be hard… I cannot possibly put myself in your place. But I won’t let you go! Ponyfeathers… I swore to your mother to take care of you.” “My mother…” Dash weakened her grab and withdrew her head a bit in order to look Fluttershy in the eye. “Don’t you remember her last words? Do you think she would want you to just kill yourself like that? Do you think your parents would approve of such a decision?” Fluttershy shook her head as her eyes watered again. With a powerful grip, she squeezed Dash and pressed her face against her chest. “I am sorry… I just wanted for the pain to end, I wasn’t thinking!” Dash ignored the pain as her elastic bones, adapted to endure crashes from great heights, were tested by the bear hug from from her guilt ridden friend. “It’s okay, Flutters. I am here for you. It will be hard… but I won’t leave your side. We will get through this… together.”