Equestria Divided Tales

by Grenazers

Cult of Laughter: Laughing Dead

"Try as you might, the past will come back and haunt you"

- Smart Cookie

No truer words can be said, in that quote. Many ponies believe they can forget about certain things in their lives, things they want to forget, things they regret ever doing, and things they just to forget. Whatever their reason is, they unfortunately can't simply forget about it. Your future is determined by what you did, and sadly your past contributes in shaping your future.

In an old barn house located near old Ponyville, a lone stallion resides there, tending to his small vegetable garden. It wasn't much but, it was enough for him to survive on. He does occasionally go to the nearby refugee camp and trade his crops with the ponies there. Shallow Stone was his name and he's been doing this for a sometime, just recently did he started living on this abandoned farm and took up residents.

The local ponies from the refugee camps came to know the lone stallion, they all know him as the nice and kind gentlecolt. However, what all those ponies don't know is that Shallow Stone has very trouble past. It was something that happened a long time ago, something he wished to forget, something he wished it won't come back.

At first Stone was able to leave his past behind, and live his new life. But, then the nightmare appeared. Every night it is the same damn dream for him. The dream about a mother, a father, their child, a bandit, and lots of blood. These reoccurring nightmares were preventing him having any restful nights.

Despite these nightmares, the dark green stallion didn't let it bother his works and continue his gardening. While working, Stone felt like somepony was watching him. He occasionally looks around, to see if there was anypony around. Before it was just nothing but, now he started seeing things.

It started with black smudges that escape from his line of sights, then later it becomes a black silhouette of ponies, and finally one time he got a clear view of his stalker. Pony he saw was a tad shorter than him and he was wearing a black cloak. But, what's most disturbing about this pony was that, while his hood block the upper part of his face. The lower part was visible for Stone to see, what he saw was the guy's mouth, smiling wickedly.

Shallow Stone recognizes that smile from anywhere, it was the smile that he seen before. The Cult of Laughter, a new group that mysteriously appeared out of nowhere and already have thousands of members, with more joining up with them every day.

Those cults promised ponies all better life with smile and laughter, things that were taken away from them when the country was divided. They also promised their followers to be able to reunite with their lost loved ones and bring back the happiness in their bleak and terrible world.

These nut jobs are no better then the other houses, using ponies to fulfill their selfish purposes, deluding the populace with their propaganda about justifiable causes and reasons.

Stone has seen these ponies in first hoof, their followers are totally insane, overzealous, and creepy. Always smiling and laughing, they are more than happy to kill and die for their cause. Not only that he heard that they are practicing necromancy, raising the dead to fight for them.

Fearing for his life Shallow Stone started packing up his things and waited till morning to move out. Gathering the last of his supplies, the dark gray stallion hooked up the wagon on himself and quickly trotted out of the barn, and out abandoning the farm. As soon as he got out, Stone turned from his quick trotting to, galloping as fast as he can could go.

By the time he stopped and rest, the sun was already setting down. The bright yellow orb in the sky disappearing over the horizon. Speaking of disappearing, if the two princesses were really gone, then how come the sun and the moon are still rising and falling. Whether they are still around and that they are controlling the sun and moon, or it was just one big lie. He just prays that they come back, to finally end this conflict once and for all.

Snapping out of his thoughts, Stone took out his map and checked his position. If he continued at this pace, he will be able to reach New Ponyville by tomorrow. As much as he wanted to keep going, his body was tired and need some rest. Stone decided to rest by a dead tree and lie down. Unfortunately, as he got down his eyelids were getting heavy, and he has a hard time keeping his eyes opened. Soon his eyes were shut and he was dreamland.

Shallow Stone is having a nightmare again, and unlike those other dreams where it present scenario, centering around the ponies fears. Stone on the other hoof, his dreams actually did happen and have haunted him to this day.

His dream involves a family of three, one mom and dad, plus a young child. He sees the family galloping away from someone, another pony. Wielding an axe, the pony chased the after the fleeing family. Stone recognizes the bandit and knew what was going to happen next.

The bandit finally caught to the tired out family, they begged for mercy. Too bad he didn't have any, he split the father's face in half with his axe and chopped a huge chunk of flesh of the mother's neck. The bandit did all this in front of their child, who sat there watching in utter horror as his parents are brutally murdered in front of him.

With both parents dead, this left the young colt with their murder. The bandit slowly trotted to frozen colt, and before the dream could continue, Stone was brought out of his sleep by a sudden loud noise. The gray stallion did a quick look around to find the source of the noise. When him turn his head towards his wagon, his eyes widen in horror.

Standing on top of his wagon is pony but, not just any pony. A corpse, rotten up, its coat darken to a darker shade. The hair is barely kept it attached to the head. However those don't compare to the dead pony's face, there is a large line going down the corpse's face, hold together by stitches. Its eyes are gone, leaving nothing but, two empty holes. And that horrifying smile on its mouth, showcasing its rotted teeth.

Shallow Stone was so distracted by the this abomination, he didn't notice two figures coming from behind. One of them tosses a lasso around his neck. The rope surrounding his neck was then suddenly pulled, resulting in the stallion falling on his back.

Before he could recover, someone the pulled the rope tied tot he stallion, and started dragging him towards the leafless tree. As he was being dragged, he passed his wagon. Grabbing the knife he was lying next to him when he slept, he cut the rope and freed himself.

As he raised his head he identify the two other assailants, one is another reanimated corpse and the other is the same pony in cloak. Stone rolled to the side, dodging the attack of the other corpse on his wagon. The gray stallion then raise his knife and stabbed the creature in the head.

He hoped that this thing was one of those destroy the brain type of undead. Unfortunately, it wasn't and it just swatted him away. The corpse then jumped on the down stallion pinning him down, its strength surpasses any normal pony since it has no limitation.

With him unable to move, the other corpse trotted to them and tied a new rope around Stone's neck. Upon closer look he saw a huge gash on the second corpse's neck. Once the rope tightens, the two zombies dragged the stallion towards the tree, where the cloak pony is standing.

Shallow Stone futilely tried to remove the rope around his neck, but the rope was locked tightly around the skin of his neck. The two corpses finally reached the tree, the cloak pony ordered them to toss the rope around a branch. They then pulled onto the rope, raising the gray stallion of the ground, hanging him.

As he was hanging, Stone got a clear view of his three assailants. The one having the longest stitch on his face was holding onto the rope. The undead pony was standing near the stitch face pony, with the cloak pony in between the two. The pony then took off his hoodie revealing his face.

Upon the revealing his face, Stone's eyes were widened again. He recognizes this young stallion. Memories of that time came flashing back, replaying in his mind. He was the bandit chasing the chasing the family, the one who killed his parents in front of him, the one that took away his loved ones, and the one to sell him into slavery.

Now many years later the very same colt came back, with his parents, seeking vengeance. The smiling stallion watched as the pony struggled a bit, until he stopped. Tying the rope around the tree, the three ponies left the body to hang on the tree. The cloak stallion happy, finally avenging his parents' death.

Comments

[FleetlordAvatar]

I honestly expected Shallow Stone to be the colt from the dream, I did not see that coming.

Who's next I wonder?