Ragtime Dandies

by NotHereAnymoreProbably

Prompt 1: Hush (Not to Be) [Romance] [Sad]

Prompt 1: 'Hush' - Write a RainbowPie story in which one (or both) of the characters does not utter a single word of dialogue for the entire story.

~~~

Not to Be

“Twilight, seriously! What are we doing out here?”

Twilight Sparkle didn't slow down, didn't even turn her head as she answered, “It's... a surprise.”

Rainbow Dash seethed, but kept her mouth shut as she plodded along behind the unicorn. They'd been walking for ages, and without knowing where they were going she couldn't even fly ahead. Not that flying was particularly useful in the Everfree Forest; the thick brush and low, overhanging branches made it difficult to manoeuvre, so it was pretty much pointless.

She seethed, but that didn't stop her from hoping, for Twilight's sake, that she'd been dragged out here for a good reason. Twilight might be a bit stupid sometimes, but she wasn't an idiot; the Everfree Forest was no place to be when night fell, and night was falling pretty darn quickly. Any minute now, the orange sky would fade to grey, and the Everfree would fade to black.

Not that she was scared or anything. Being scared of the dark was for wimps and little crybaby fillies. Nor was she scared of any manticore, cockatrice or Celestia knew what other beast out of Tartarus came her way. But there was a difference between being scared and being practical. She'd learned that the hard way.

“Twilight, whatever this is had better show up in about the next thirty seconds, because I'm not staying around much longer than that.”

With a smirk, Twilight came to a stop and set her horn aglow, lighting up what Rainbow now realised was a small clearing which looked eerily artificial. The trees were far too evenly spaced, and there seemed to be some sort of pattern on the ground. Not only that; she now realised that for the past few minutes, she'd not heard a single sound past the beating of their hooves. No birds, no critters, no enraged, hellish monsters. It was just... silent.

“Rainbow Dash, do you remember many Old Mares' Tales?”

“One or two. What's that got to do with anything?”

“It has everything to do with anything.” She took a breathe and walked to the centre of the clearing. “I read a story not long ago. It was sad, really; it was all about a pair of lovers who it seemed everything was just perfect for... but one day, they had a fight. The next day, one of them died. The one who lived cried for days, wishing she could make things right between them again – and then one day, she met a zebra who claimed to have a special power: he could bring back the dead, for just a single moment.”

Twilight began to harp on about how this clearing was essentially a fault-line of magical essence, somehow linking this world with the afterlife, and so much more magical jazz, but Rainbow Dash's mind kept replaying a few choice words. “He could bring back the dead, for just a single moment.”

A tiny light spread through her heart, but was it too good to be true? “Twilight, why are we here?”

“You saw it yourself when Nightmare Moon came back, Dash; some Old Mares' Tales aren't just fiction. Zecora and I found this place – whoever that zebra was, he-”

“Twilight. Why are we here?”

This time, Twilight answered not with words, but with actions. She lit her horn ablaze, pouring magic into a spell both complex and simple at the same time, sending eldritch violet light shimmering through the glade, and finally touched her horn to the centre of the design on the forest floor. Suddenly the light spread, expanding like a web over the ground, until the glyph was fully alight with the magic of life itself.

And Rainbow knew why everything had been silent around this place. The world itself was holding its breath, waiting for the miracle that was Pinkie Pie to come back for that one, special, heartwrenching moment.

The sound of laughter danced on the wind, and from within the light stepped a shining, bright pink mare, her smile gifting the world one last time with its presence. She bounced forward, her face alight with joy, while from her eyes shone acceptance and love. No words were said, yet somehow Rainbow could feel everything that might have been. Pinkie didn't blame her for what had happened, and she forgave her for what had been said; she loved her Dashie, and she didn't mind waiting a little bit longer if it meant they could be together again. But it was definitely nice to see each other.

And suddenly, as quickly as they had been reunited, they were torn apart; beginning with her hooves and spreading upwards, Pinkie began to fade. Rainbow Dash cried – she stepped forward, reaching out towards the dissipating phantasm in a last-ditch attempt to just touch her one last time, to lean forward that little bit more and steal just one more kiss...

But it was not to be. Radiating warmth and gladness, Pinkie disappeared, leaving behind nothing but a giggle and a lonely, crying pegasus.

Comments

[NotHereAnymoreProbably]

I guess one of the main ideas that got me writing this story was the idea of one (or both) of them not talking. Frankly, Dash and Pinkie are two of the most talkative characters in the entire series – there's barely an episode without either of them, and of course there are a multitude which include both.

So really... how could either of them STOP talking? It just... how does that work? Pinkie Pie, trying to play the Quiet Game with Fluttershy maybe? But wait, no – this is a RainbowPie story.

While I pondered, I got thinking about mortality and life and such, an obvious progression of thought from forcing two characters that ought never be silenced into submission. And then it hit me – obviously, one of them is dead. And clearly that was Pinkie Pie – I mean, come on! That girl never shuts up. The only way to do it is for her to be dead.

The rest really just went from there. I probably could have done this story without Dash speaking as well, but for the sake of Twilight's exposition, it was better that she was able to talk – if not for her own sake, then so that Twilight wasn't just yapping on about who knows what to a pegasus who didn't even care. Well, clearly Dash doesn't anyway, but it just works better this way.

And heck, even with Pinkie dead I couldn't stop her from talking. That segment in the third-last paragraph – all you need is quotation marks and a change of tense, basically, and you have a nice little bit of dialogue.

But let's call it 'Pinkie Pie Power' instead, yeah?

Also, for a first time ever doing RainbowPie as a ship, I don't think this went too badly. Despite, you know, killing one of them. But heck, I gotta stick with what I'm good at.