Cinematic Adventures: Corpse Bride

Betrayal

The strange glowing mist slowly dissipated along the abandoned wood. After a moment, the mist disappeared altogether. As the sparkling dust cleared, everyone opened their eyes, blinking with bewilderment. They find themselves standing in very familiar surroundings, the very same forest they originally been in before Emily's arrival. It looked as though no time had truly passed seeing as it was still the dead of night, cold and wintery, the moon still hanging high along the sky. The ponies took a look around, smiling in relief before the forest.

Twilight Sparkle took a deep breath, and a sigh escaped her lips. It felt good to be breathing the air of this landscape once more.

"So good to be back in the living world again," Twilight sighed in relief.

"Yeah, no offense to the other world, it's nice being back in a place where everything feels... well, alive!" Rainbow remarked.

"You can say that again," Spike nodded.

Even Bright Mac and Pear Butter looked around in complete astonishment. They've been in the Land of the Dead so long, being in the living world felt almost... foreign. So long since they were able to bask in the chilled air of winter or even feel the light of the moon shining on them.

"Ah almost forget what it's like tah actually feel the cold on mah fur after so long," Bright Mac commented.

"Remember our first Hearts Warmin'?" Pear Butter asked, smiling. "When we walked side by side with that scarf wrapped tightly round us?"

Bright Mac smiled fondly over the memories, as he and his wife leaned against one another enjoying each other's presence as they were finally among the living again. Applejack smiled fondly as well, as she approached them and turned her gaze toward the moon.

"Ah still remember our first Hearths Warmin' as a family," She recalled. "Me and Big MacIntosh buildin' that huge snow pony... lil' Apple Bloom prancin' round the snow fer the first time..."

The Apple family reveled in their memories, as Applejack leaned towards her parents. Bright Mac wrapped his hooves around his wife and daughter, one hoof over each of them. The other ponies turned toward the family as they basked under the moonlight, side by side after what felt like an eternity.

"Trixie can hardly believe this to be true," Trixie replied. "Almost feels like a dream."

"A dream where everything's real yet they'd all be phantoms," Maud added plainly.

"Yeah, sure... that's one way to look at it," Rainbow replied, uncertainly.

The Apples were not alone, as Emily too gazed up at the moon. Though she held no air in her lungs, she still took the deepest breath she could.

"I've spent so long in the dark," She smiled. "I had almost forgotten how beautiful the moonlight is."

The rest of the Mane Six gazed toward the bright moon and couldn't help but smile as well.

"It makes me happy Princess Luna is with us again," Rarity marveled. "At least in some form."

"I couldn't agree more Rarity," Fluttershy nodded.

Feeling the joy and jubilation course through her decaying body, Emily began to swiftly slide about as she waltzed about in the snowy eve. She glides around the trunk of a tree and round the clearings, disappearing and reappearing again. Victor and the others are transfixed by the vision of her dancing, her dress flowing around her like smoke in the cold light of the moon. Pinkie Pie herself couldn't help but join in.

"I remember my first dance with Cheesy after our marriage," She smiled fondly. "I stepped on his hooves a few different times, but he never let me fall."