> Pony Tales
>  by GetJinxed
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Nightmare
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

			Thunder booms and lightning cracks across the dark, storm clouded skies outside of Ponyville.
"Huff.....huff...." pants a lavendar unicorn mare. She turns her head behind her. "I think I lost her." she says.
"No you didn't Twilight Sparkle. No you didn't." an ominous voice says. Twilight continues to run. She comes to the edge of a cliff and stops. She turns around and gasps at what she sees: a unicorn that looks like her, but darker.
"W-Who are you?" Twilight asks, her voice shaking. The dark unicorn laughs.
"I am Twimare, or rather, your dark half Twilight Sparkle." the unicorn says, grabbing Twilight in a dark purple glow of magic.
"P-Put me down! Let me go!" Twilight says, struggling to escape the hold of the magic.
"I cannot do that Twilight. You are the last of the 6, and I always finish what I start. Good bye Twilight Sparkle, tell your friends I said hello." Twimare says. She throws Twilight off the edge of the cliff. Twilight screams as she hurtles towards the ground.
"Twilight!" a voice screams. Twilight keeps screaming, not paying attention to anything other than her quickly approaching end. "TWILIGHT!" the voice screams in Twilight's ear. Twilight jumps and falls out of her bed, having been woken from her nightmare. A powder blue unicorn is standing beside the bed. She helps Twilight up. "Trixie is sorry about that, you were screaming in you sleep again Twilight." Trixie says.
"Thanks Trixie. I had that dream again, the one where I saw how my friends die...." Twilight says, tearing up at the words. Not long ago, Twilight's friends, the rest of the mane 6, had been found murdered in each of their respective homes and workplaces.
"You never did tell Trixie the about your nightmare. Tell Trixie, maybe Trixie can help you stop the bad dreams so you can get some sleep." Trixie suggests.
"Ok, but the details of the dream are a little.... gory." Twilight says. She sighs and begins. "I start the dream out the same way I always do: I'm walking through the Everfree after paying a visit to Zecora. After this visit, however, I realized that the plants in the Everfree had never been documented. Luckily I always carry a notebook, quills, and inkwells around with me, just in case I need them. I start walking along, stopping at the sights of the local flora, drawing and noting what they look like and their behaviors. After a few hours of walking, I come to where Fluttershy has her cabin. I decided to pay her a visit and hopefully take a rest. I walk to the door and prepare to knock on it, but I notice it is slightly ajar, which is unusual for her because of her nature. I open the door the rest of the way and call out, but I get no reply. I go inside and immediately, I am hit with a rotting stench. I cast an oxygen filtration spell and try to find the stench."
"What was it? Did she accidentally leave some food out and it went bad?" Trixie asks, rubbing Twilights' back with her hooves.
"No, it was much worse. I walked down a hallway, the one that leads to her room. I notice that the smell is starting to get through the spell, so I figure I must be close right? Boy was I right. I opened Fluttershy's door and scream: on her bed, Fluttershy is tied up, a rope connecting a leg to each bedpost. Her chest cavity is opened, her ribs broken and split, and her heart lain beside her. I cast a quick teleport spell and wind up at Rainbow Dash's place." Twilight says, shaking at the memory.
"Twilight, are you ok? You don't have to continue." Trixie says as she brushes Twilight's mane.
" No, I do. I ran inside Dash's home after casting the cloud walking spell. I searched all over for Dash, I called out her name. I came to her exercise room. Just as I go in, I hear a wet thump. I open the door slowly and see her head pancaked between the floor and a weight. I exited the room and threw up. I thought, 'My friends are dropping like flies! I have to save the rest of them!' So I cast a third teleportation spell and went to Rarity's next. I felt my magic waning, so I figured not to cast any more spells unless I needed them.  I started to walk towards Rarity's house and was welcome with the natural noise of her sewing machine." Twilight continues.
"Well that's a relief, right?" Trixie asks as she begins to tie Twilight's hair in a braid.
"I thought that too, until I got to her front door. On it, I saw Rarity's cutie mark. And I mean her CUTIE MARK. Somepony had skinned her flank and nailed it in the door. I opend the door slowly and gazed down. I saw a lock of her hair and some blood. I don't know why, but I followed the trail. It led to her design room. I looked up and screamed. Standing there, or impaled I should say, was Rarity, wearing her own flesh as a dress. I raced over to the bakery, praying to Celestia that Pinkie was ok. I ran into Mrs. Cake. She asked me what was going on, but I yelled at her, tellig me to tell her where Pinkie was. She told me she saw Pinkie go into the kitchen." Twilight continues.
"When is Pinkie never in that kitchen?" Trixie asks as she rubs Twilights neck.
"Yeah. Anyways, I walk in and I yell for Pinkie. I get no reply, save for the ding of the oven. I og over ot it thinking, 'Pinkie never leaves her baking unattended'. I open the oven and scream: somepony had cut Pinkie up into pieces and baked her... into a pie! Her facial expression was locked in that smile of hers, but she had an apple shoved in her mouth. I turned and saw Mrs. Cake standing there, smiling evily. She asked me what was wrong, than turned into Twimare." Twilight explains.
"Who's Twimare?" Trixie asks.
"Twimare is a unicorn that is my height, with my colors only darker. She said she was my evil self, the part of me that wanted to kill my friends because of how annoying I thought they are, but it isn't true! I loved the girls with all me heart. I ran out of the kitchen and out towards a cliff, although I had no idea it was a cliff at the time. A thunderstorm started raging. I got to the cliff. Twimare caught up to me and said that I was the last of the 6 and that she always finished her wo- T-Trixie! Let me go!" Twilight screams as Trixie chokes her. 'Trixie' grins and turns into Twimare.
"I told you Twilight. I always finish my work." She says
" SOMEPONY HEL-" Twilight begins, but never finishes, as her neck breaks with a loud snap at Twimare's twist.
"Now than," she says as she turns into Twilight. "off to the castle for some fun with teacher!"  she laughs evily and exits the building, heading for the train station.
			
> Memorial Day
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

						Everypony gathered around in the town square in Ponyville. Today is May 27th. Memorial Day. The day my dad, 1st Lt. Draco Flare, died. He was fighting in the Griffin/Pony war. Sorry, I should introduce myself. My name is Firefly, daughter of Draco Flare and the Changeling Junebug. I am a Changeling with 2 sets of wings. I am 12 years old. I walk over to the microphone.
"Hello everypony, and welcome to Ponyville. I'm Firefly. Today, I am going to honor the fallen, especially my father, Draco Flare, 1st Lt in the Lunar army, with a song." I say. I turn to Vinyl Scratch who puts the song I requested on.

Courtesy of the Lunar Army
(sung to the tune of Courtesy of the Red White, and Blue)

Equestrian girls and Equestrian guys, will always stand up and salute.
We'll always recognize, when we see our banner flying,
There's a lot of men dead,
So we can sleep in peace at night when we lay down our heads. 
My daddy served in the army where he lost his right eye,
But he flew a flag out in our yard 'til the day that he died.
He wanted my mother, my brother, my sister and me.
To grow up and live happy in the land of the free.

Now this nation that I love is fallin' under attack.
A mighty sucker-punch came flying in from somewhere in the back.
Soon as we could see clearly through our big black eye,
Man, we lit up your world like the fourth of July.

Hey,Aunt Luna put your name at the top of her list,
And the Statue of Friendship started shaking her hoof.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the Lunar Army.

*Instrumental break.*

Oh, justice will be served and the battle will rage:
This big dog will fight when you rattle his cage.
An' you'll be sorry that you messed with Equestia.
'Cos we'll put a hoof in your ass, it's the Equestrian way.

Hey, Aunt Luna put your name at the top of her list,
And the Statue of Friendship started shaking her hoof.
And the eagle will fly and it's gonna be hell,
When you hear Mother Freedom start ringing her bell.
And it'll feel like the whole wide world is raining down on you.
Ah, brought to you, courtesy of the yellow, white and blue.

Oh, oh.
Of the Lunar Army.
Oh, hey, oh.
Of my Lunar Army.

The song ends as everypony in the crowd begins to clap their hooves together and cheer, as they cry. They stop, but one pony keeps going.
"Beautiful, little one, beautiful." the pony, a stallion wearing a cloak with a hood, says. He walks over to me.
"Thank you. Why do you seem familiar?" I ask him. He smiles under the cloak, showing fangs.
"I should know my own daughter, shouldn't I?" he says, taking of his hood, showing a familiar green and brown spotted face. I gasp and the crowd begins to cheer.
"Dad!" I scream. I hug him tight.
"Aye, it's me. Thank you for honoring the soldiers of our country Firefly, thank you. All the fallen, and current soldiers salute to you." he says, returning my hug. As he does, I can tell it is going to be the best Memorial Day ever.