Prompt-A-Day Collection III: Prompt Warriors

by Admiral Biscuit

21: Buttons

Pinkie Pie was dead.

It was not a surprise to anypony. She was very old, and everypony agreed that it was nice that she’d first finished decorating what was later regarded to have been the best Nightmare Night celebration Equestria had seen in centuries, possibly ever. Three hours in, somepony had wondered why she was facedown in the punch.

She’d been put to rest the next day, and her friends and descendants came to pay their last respects, along with the five Princesses of Equestria. It was a nice funeral, although the reception was . . . lacking. Fortunately, Cheesie Pie managed to accidentally activate a party cannon, and after that, things went fairly well.

After the interment came the most difficult task of all: cleaning out Pinkie’s house.

The living room was turned into the sorting room. There, all objects were placed, and distributed to family members. It was a very social affair, and before too long, it had turned into a party which attracted most of Ponyville. That was hardly surprising, and it was what Pinkie would have wanted.

By mid-day, ponies were taking trinkets and tokens home with them, displaying them in their own houses, and sharing stories about that time Pinkie had jumped out of a cake with a rubber chicken in her mouth, or how she’d managed—on a dare—to complete every verse of “ten thousand bales of hay in the barn” over a memorable weekend.

By the evening, things were in full swing. Pound and Pumpkin began carrying over cakes and treats which had been inspired by Pinkie’s cooking, and a rousing chorus of “Giggle at the Ghosties” was begun by a highly intoxicated Berry Pinch, who had followed exactly in her mother’s hoofsteps, complete with her own crop of illegitimate foals and grandfoals.

Over the next week, as the house was slowly emptied, a dozen ponies found true love, three foals got their cutie marks, every lamppost in town had stopped by the cemetery to pay its respects—courtesy of Discord—and Lickety Split, in the throes of an ice-cream headache, discovered the meaning of life. He also discovered that Pinkie Pie hid things in bananas, but that’s a story for a different time.

The town was partying as it never had before.

But, all good things come to an end. On the ninth day, Cheesie Pie came down to report that the house was empty, all except for the dormer on the north side of the house. All the eyepatches had been discovered and distributed, and no foal was without a ball and a rubber chicken. Fake vomit was frequently appearing in the hospital and schoolhouse.

The ponies of Ponyville took the news in stride. The funeral and wake had been a thing of legend, and it would be discussed through the cold winter months. As the wind blew and the snow flew, trinkets would be taken out of their storage places and chuckled over, and the families would share some memories of Pinkie Pie, and the winter would seem just a little bit warmer.

“Well, that’s it,” Cheesie declared as he picked up the last box. “Everything distributed, and everypony’s happy.” He slid the box out of the dormer room with a quick flip of his hind leg. “Now there’s nothing but to . . . huh, I wonder what this is?”

Below the box, slightly recessed into the shelf, was a simple button. It was large enough to easily be manipulated by hoof—a design sentiment which made sense, since Pinkie had always been an earth pony. It was bright red, and in neat white block letters it simple said “PUSH.”

“Hey, Sammie. What do you think of this?”

“I think it’s a button.” Although he knew his sister had been downstairs when he called for her, he was not surprised that she was right next to him in time to answer the question. Such were the ways of the Pies.

“What do you think it does?”

“I don’t know, push the button and find out.”

Cheesie looked at it. Pinkie had been random and inscrutable, but she had not been mean. There wasn’t a mean bone in her body. Whatever the button did, it was likely to be something fun, or something that would turn out to be fun in the end, even if it didn’t seem like it at first.

He slid a hoof forward, closed his eyes, and pushed.

Author's Note:

Prompt:"I don't know, push the button and find out."
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Comments

[PunIntended Consequences]

Aw, I want to know what happens when you push the button!

[Sollace]

3988904
As do I.

Who says she'll pop out of somewhere alive and well when they press the button?

--Sollace

[an1979]

"She’d been put to rest the next day, and her friends and descendants came to pay their last respects, along with the five Princess of Equestria."
(Princess -> Princesses)
So was there a birth in royal family or is Shinning still around and counted in that five (Royals of Equestria)?

"I wonder, what's this red button do?" (sic)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IJNR2EpS0jw Dumb Ways to Die

[MrZJunior]

3989930
Or not so alive and well. Zombie Pinkie!

[Lupus]

I imagine Pinkie loaded a spring in what would later become her grave, and when the button is pushed...

[Lancerlot]

...And in a vault deep below Sugarcube Corner, the first in a series of cryostasis chambers hissed open. Looking around, Mirror Pool clone #1 slowly smiled. This was going to be fun!

[Admiral Biscuit]

6933877
I have considered a short story where a pony is using the mirror pool for some sort of immortality. Said pony suddenly discovers that it's been blocked by Twilight.