A harmless prank?
"Cookies..!"
"Gah!" Rainbow Dash shrieked as the former citizens of Ponyville cornered her.
Just as Pinkie was about to stop the prank, Rainbow Dash flew straight up, making a hole in the roof.
"Aww, shucks! Now I've gotta fix the roof after this!" Applejack said as she pointed her hoof up to the newly formed hole. Too bad Dash couldn't hear her as she flew towards Town Hall.
I did this?! How could I? Was there something wrong with the joke cookies? I'm pretty sure there wasn't anything poisonous, was there? Rainbow Dash thought as sped to Town Hall.
Element of loyalty, huh? I basically killed everypony with my 'prank', my friends and everypony else in Ponyville. I killed them. I killed them all. The realisation hit her, she had lost every pony she cared for. Her closest friends, because of her. They're gone. Or so she thought.
Tears ran down Rainbows' face. She didn't care if somepony saw her, or if anypony was there to see her, she just cried.
Town Hall came into view. Rainbow landed on the doors of the grand building and walked in. As she expected, empty boxes of the cookies were scattered all over the floor. She walked through the piles of boxes as she didn't feel like flying. She felt her heart ache that time and decided it was better not to fly when your heart hurts. Through all the piles of boxes and cookie crumbles, she saw a long piece of rope and a short stool.
Huh? What's this doing here? Rainbow thought. Oh well, since nopony's using it, I might take it. It will come in handy too. Rainbow grabbed both items and flew over to the outskirts of Ponyville where one single tree was.
This looks like a good spot.
** Meanwhile in the barn **
"We got her good this time!" Pinkie said.
"Yeah! You shoulda' seen the look on er' face!" Applejack laughed.
"Yes Darling, you've really done it on this one!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Why thank you Rarity! I do really put in effort in my pranks, don't I? Pinkie said as she puffed out her chest in pride.
"Umm, Ok girls but we might want to find her now before she wrecks anything else. Uhh, no offence to her of course." Fluttershy said softly.
"Fluttershy's right, we need to look for her and explain about all this. I don't think she even knew it was a prank!" Twilight said.
"Do you know where she even went?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"I saw her heading North from here. Near the outskirts of Ponyville." said Button Mash
"Well, it's a start. Come on girls! let's go!"
"Right!" The other four agreed and they were off.
** Outskirts of Ponyville **
A tree stood there, its leaves danced in the wind along with a noose attached to one of its branches. Just below the branch was a wooden stool and finally, the pony who was about to slide her head into the noose was none other than Rainbow Dash.
As she took one last glance at the peaceful scene before her she whispered a few words. "I'm so sorry I wasn't a good friend I was supposed to be. I am sincerely sorry." She kicked the stool from its place as her vision faded to black.
** Twilight and her friends **
Twilight, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and Applejack reached the open fields where Rainbow was at. They saw a lone tree where a silhouette of a pony hanged on a rope could be seen.
"What in tarnation?!" Applejack squealed at the sight.
The rest turned their attention to the hanged figure and gasped. "W-Who w-was th-that?" Fluttershy asked, terror evident in her voice.
"I don't know." Twilight said as she moved closer to the figure. As she got closer, she could see the colours of the pony a little bit better. She saw a pony with a cyan coat and.... rainbow mane? Oh no...
" No." Twilight said softly. "We're too late."
"What is it, darling? Who was it?" Rarity said as she felt tension build up in her.
"I-it was Rainbow." Twilight said inaudibly.
"W-who?" Pinkie asked again, her mane deflating slightly.
"It w-was Ra-Rai-" Twilight began but was interrupted.
"JUST SPIT IT OUT ALREADY GIRL!!" Applejack all but screamed, she couldn't handle the tension and curiosity. But after the answer came, she wished she never asked.
"It was Rainbow Dash!!!" Twilight shouted back as tears streamed down her face.
Everypony stood quiet for a moment before saying, "What?!" They all gasped.
"B-b-but why?!" Pinkie asked, her mane deflating completely.
Rarity thought for a moment. "It might have been been because of the 'prank' we did to teach her a lesson." Rarity said to the rest.
"But why! It was just a prank!" Pinkie said, trying to hold back tears.
"Y-yes, It was supposed to be a prank, but for our dear Rainbow, it was just all too real. I mean, how would you feel if you just zombified the whole town, including your friends, just because of a prank?" Rarity sniffled.
"W-what? I-I'd feel horrible!" Pinkie answered.
"Exactly Pinkie." Rarity said.
"I-I guess we took the prank too far. Huh? We did this." Twilight sighed.
"Y-yeah, we d-did." Fluttershy surprisingly answered as she tried to calm Pinkie down a little.
So, this is how it ends huh? Twilight thought as tears continued to stream down her face.I'm so sorry Rainbow, we didn't want this to happen. We shouldn't have pranked you like this
Twilight and her remaining four friends stayed there weeping at the loss for what seemed like hours until the whole town found them fast asleep under moonlights embrace. If you looked really carefully, you could see one more figure watching over them.
"Sweet dreams" A soft, mysterious voice called out to them.