"Fluttershy." I answered without hesitation. "We need to get it over with." I saw Rainbow Dash's eyes become glassy as she looked down. I walked over and put a hoof on her shoulder. As she raised her head to meet my gaze, I looked deep into her violet eyes as comfortingly as possible and spoke softly, "It will be okay. She was a hero-"
"Is." Rainbow Dash cut me off with a tear in her eye.
"She is and always will be. She saved all of our asses." I said.
"But at what cost?! She is going to die, and there is nothing I can do about it! I have to just sit there and watch her fade away to nothing! Do you know how that feels?!" She asked with tears breaking through and streaming down her face.
I bit my bottom lip and did the only comforting thing that I could think of. I hugged her. It felt odd as a pony, but right nonetheless. I could only hope that Dinky wasn't the overly jealous type, after all, this was just a friendly gesture. Dash was hesitant at first, but then buried her face into my mane, weeping profusely.
"Yes... I know how it feels to lose a loved one. Maybe not someone that you love in that manner, but I did loose someone very dear to me a year before graduation. I had to go through the same thing as you have to. But it was my brother on the end of that machine. He was the last bit of family I had left. The only other people I cared about were my friends. And those were scarce as well. But I did what I had to and toughed it out with the help of my friends. Sure, it took a little time, some days of just sitting alone, thinking. But I did it. The only thing that I regret is that it made me colder."
"Before he passed, I couldn't dream of harming a soul. Then, after his passing, I graduated High School and joined the military. Within the first week of being deployed, I had blood on my hands. He was one of the men in my squad. He ran into the middle of the crossfire like an idiot. Trying to be the hero. I didn't see him coming. I shot down one of my own people by accident. I looked through his wallet. He had a wife and two kids with another on the way. But that wasn't the worst part. The worst was that I felt no remorse. No guilt. He was dead and I didn't care. His family was going to grieve and my heart gave not a single beat for them."
I inhaled, getting a little ahead of myself. "My point is, give it time. Everyone dies." All of them were shocked at my story. Except Twilight. She looked at me with mutual sympathy. Like she had been through similar. She probably had.
"You aren't so cold now. You cried countless times, and saved us with emotion." Rainbow whispered between sobs.
"Time heals all wounds. Even the frigid ones." I said. She held me and arms length. Hooves length. Whatever.
"Flutters and I... We were suppose to grow old together. Spend time with our adopted mare. She maybe eighteen, but eighteen is still to young to lose your mother..."
"Any age is to young to lose your mother." I said, briefly reliving my own mothers death. Rainbow nodded in agreement.
"Believe me. I know." She said. There was a pause. "Lets... Lets just get going." She said and sniffed, wiping away tears. The walk back down to Ponyville was pretty silent and uneventful, except for the occasional stumble of me getting use to walking and, now and then, Rainbow sniffing up her tears. Although, there was a small side conversation.
"So... How was it?" Luna's voice asked.
"How was what?" I asked back.
"The spell."
"Oh. It went well. It hurt, but other than that, it was just like passing out." I lied. She seemed to accept it with a nod, but a little glint in her eyes told me that I would hear about my lie later. When we reached the hospital, I looked up at the bright sun gleaming from the tinted glass. It reminded me nostalgically of home. I had a brief thought that I might have made the wrong choice, but instantly shoved the thought from my mind because of its stupidity and walked through the doors with the other ponies. A cool breeze drifted by me, rustling my fur as I entered the building. Celestia strode confidently up to the mare at the reception center.
"It's time." Her sadder voice betrayed her royal composure. The mare nodded and picked up the phone, speaking in a sweet voice.
"Room forty-three." There was a pause as the pony on the other end talked through it. "Yes, Doctor, it's time." She said and hung up. "My condolences. Especially to you, General Dash." She said. Rainbow looked up at her.
"How did you know about Fluttershy and I..?" She asked. The mare just smiled.
"I had to look through her records and saw that she had an adoptive daughter. But I also saw that she was listed as a single parent. I asked her about it, and she told me about you two." She said.
"You aren't freaked out?" She asked. The mare just waved a hoof nonchalantly.
"Not in the slightest. I'm not a very judgmental pony." She said. Rainbow Dash smiled genuinely.
"Thank you." She said. The mare at the counter just nodded with a smile. Celestia and Luna led us around a corner and into a small room. I was met with a sight that brought overwhelming sadness to me.
Fluttershy layed in a partial sitting position with a clear mask that was slightly fogged resting over her mouth and nose as her chest rose and fell with the rhythm of the heartbeat monitor. Her mane was sprawled across the gurney and her eyes were closed. We each walked in quietly, taking seats where we could find them. We sat in silence. The only noise being that of the steady beeping of the heartbeat monitor and everyponies breathing.
"I-I'm not meaning to be rude," The teenage lizard spoke up, "B-But, why are we waiting?"
"To give Dash and Fluttershy some final words together." Twilight spoke in her laconic manner, "And we're waiting for Scoots." She added. Rainbow Dash didn't say a word. She just sat there beside Fluttershy, staring blankly at the peaceful looking Pegasus in front of her. Dinky put her head on my shoulder and sighed deeply.
"I knew war had its costs..." She whispered softly, "But I never imagined this..." She added sadly. I nodded and layed back.
"Great victory comes with great costs." I said as Dinky layed her head on my chest and I wrapped my hoof around her, "Even the greatest of heroes can fall."
The cool thing about being a pony is the flexibility. I can do everything that I could as a human. Position-wise, that is. It was actually better than being human. I had magic and could fly. The only downside was a few rearrangements in anatomy.
''Move!" A frantic voice from outside sounded. It was cracked, but clearly female. Everypony snapped their heads to the direction of the door. "I can't miss this!" The hurt showed in this mystery mares voice as something crashed, making Dinky and I sit up. "Sorry!"
The door swung open to reveal about an eighteen year-old orange Pegasus sporting a purple mane that was styled similarly to Rainbow Dash's. Except the tip of the hair curled into a cowlick. She was panting and sweat dripped from her worried face, although it lit up when she saw Rainbow Dash. "Mom!" The orange mare called out and ran to her mother. They embraced and Dash stroked the purple mane of the mare comfortingly with her hoof.
"Shhh, it's okay, Scoots. You didn't miss it. We waited for you." She softly cooed. It seemed weird to me, touching, but weird. Only because I didn't peg Rainbow for the motherly type. Scootaloo cried into her adoptive mothers mane as Rainbow hushed her gently and comfortingly. Scootaloo backed out of the embrace to face Rainbow Dash.
"I-I'm s-sorry that I-I'm l-late." She sniffled out as quietly as possible. Dash put a hoof to Scoots mouth with a weak smile.
"It's okay. You made it. And that's what counts." She said.
"Yes... It is." A gentle, pained voice spoke. Everyponies heads jerked towards the gurney. More importantly, to Fluttershy.
"Shy!" Rainbow said and dashed to her side with Scootaloo not far behind.
"Mother!" Scootaloo cried, "Are you okay?" Fluttershy chucked lightly, the coughed.
"I can't say that I am, honey." She said with a painful smile. She then looked beyond her family and into her friends. "To all my friends, though I love you dearly, I must leave. I won't return either, and for that, I am sorry."
"Don't be. It's not your fault." Twilight said.
"Yes. You are a hero." Celestia's voice spoke.
"Who knows who might have died if you hadn't intervened." Luna added.
"I do." I stepped in. Fluttershy looked at me with surprise.
"J-Jack. Y-You stayed!" She said in surprise.
"Well," I shrugged, "You couldn't expect me to leave you guys high and dry." I said with a smile. Fluttershy chuckled lightly at my joking tone. I walked to the bed and looked her in the eye. "You saved Dinky's life. And for that, I am eternally grateful. I just wish that I could've done more for you." I said with sadness. Fluttershy looked at me, the pained smile never leaving her face as she put a hoof on my shoulder.
"It's okay. I've come to terms with my... Predicament." She said simply. That hit me the hardest. I nodded and backed away before I could breakdown. Besides, it was Scootaloo's turn to get a few words in.
"M-Mother..." Her voice choked.
"My Scootaloo. My brave little filly. You've grown up so much in the past few years. I never thought it would end like this, but hey, life has its unexpected twists. Good and bad. Be brave. If not for yourself, for me. It's okay to cry." Fluttershy said sweetly.
"I'm sorry..." Scootaloo's voice quivered with her head down, "Our last words before we left..." Fluttershy never gave up that pained smile, "I'm sorry! I didn't mean it! I love you, mother! You're not a coward!" She said, hugging Fluttershy tightly and weeping into her rolling, pink mane. Fluttershy just gently rocked Scootaloo in her hooves, stroking her mane softly while sweetly whispering into her ear.
"Shhh, it's alright, Scootaloo. I love you too." She said. Scootaloo pulled back after a few minutes.
"Tell Applebloom and Sweetie Bell... that I finally got my cutie mark..." She said with a painful smile as she revealed an emblem of two ponies ballroom dancing on her flank. I heard Rarity gently sob behind me.
"Don't worry, I will." Fluttershy said then turned to Rainbow Dash. "It's time." She said with finality.
"B-But." Dash tried to argue.
"No buts, Dashie." Fluttershy said firmly, "We knew the risk when we decided to do this. I'm just afraid that I got a little too careless." She added softly. Dash opened her mouth to retaliate, but then closed it in defeat. She nodded and got up, moving towards the plug. Scootaloo wrapped her hooves around Fluttershy.
"I-I love you." Dash said those final words and tugged the cord. The metal plug fell from the socket as time seemed to slow. Scootaloo began to sing softly in Fluttershy's ear as the yellow Pegasus's eyelids began to fall for the last time as her eyes dilated.
"Hush now... Quiet now... I-It's time to lay... Your sleepy head... Hush now... Quiet now... It's time... To go... To bed..." Scootaloo sobbed out as Fluttershy's chest fell for the last time.
Nopony could hold the floodgates anymore. Not even I. Dinky fell into my chest and wept, causing me to weep into her mane. I hugged her tightly as tears matted fur. Event the two Princesses held each other and quietly sobbed. It stayed like that for a few minutes. Then, when everything calmed down, a few ponies clad in their battle armor came in and wheeled the dead mare from the room.
Celestia let out a rattled sigh after some time, then put on a really good poker face. "I-It will take some time for them to prepare the funerals. I suggest that we cool down and collect ourselves before such an activity." She said. Again, her pained voice betrayed her stoney gaze.
"I agree." Twilight said after wiping the tears from her face.
"You guys go ahead. Me and Scoots will catch up..." Dash said with a sad sigh. I saw Twilight open her mouth to retaliate, but I quickly caught her attention and shook my head. I knew Dash had been through a lot. She probably wanted nothing more than to curl up on a bed and just lie there. To forget the world and all its horror and tragedy in a moment of bliss. But the grieving would have to wait. We would be to busy with the public for such things.
Twilight closed her mouth and nodded lightly. We exited the sorrowful room and continued out into the streets. The walk back to Headquarters was as uneventful as the trip to the hospital. If not more so. Only a few recovering sniffles broke the tense silence. The streets were completely deserted, but there were sounds of celebration in the distance. As we neared the Headquarters, the noise continually increased.
"Hey Twi?" I asked.
"Yes?"
"What is that?" I asked, waving a hoof in the direction of the noise.
"That, my dear friend, would be the celebration of winning a war and keeping the savior alive and here." She said with a light smile. I shuddered at that nickname for me and how Azuro had used it.
"Please don't call me the savior." I said. Twilight frowned, but shrugged it off. Soon, the Headquarters came into view. Along with a large crowd of ponies, all waiting with excited smiles.
"Looks like we aren't 'cooling down' anytime soon." Dinky said with a sigh.
"Could this day get any better?" I asked with very obvious sarcasm.
"Only." She groaned. We were quickly greeted by the eccentric crowd. We exchanged pleasantries, smiles, laughs, and even a few victory shots. Well, we say victory shots, but it was more for the loss of our friends. The only thing missing was a certain rainbow mane. Luckily, Scootaloo had decided to show up and put on a smile. Even if it was fake.
"Hey, Halok!" A familiar voice called through a throng of ponies. I turned around to face the white coated stallion with a smile. "How about those drinks that you promised?" He smirked.
"Mist Free!" I said and hoof-bumped him, "It's good to see you survived!" I added with a laugh
.
"Yeah, it'll take more than a Changeling army to get rid of me!" He said. We both shared a hearty laugh at that.
"Hey, bar-pony?" I asked across the bar, "Slide us two mugs of cider and a shot of today's special! On me." I said. The bar-pony smiled.
"Coming right up, General." He said, "And it's on the house!" He slid them to us. With a quick thank you, Mist Free and I were chugging our mugs of cider and telling each other about what happened after I had saved his ass.
The party went on for an hour, though it lacked a certain... Pop. When it finally ended, Twilight and Dinky both had a rosy tint to their cheeks. They weren't drunk, but they were buzzed enough to just relax. Even Celestia had the scent of alcohol on her breath. After the celebrations ended, the massive crowd dispersed, leaving me, Dinky, Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Rarity, and Spike, whose name I had learned in the party, to sit in the main room of the Headquarters. The only illumination was that of the large map that was now completely green. Another sign that we had pulled off the nigh impossible.
A little communication device on Celestia's ear beeped twice, causing her to sigh deeply. "They're ready." She said. That caused everypony to sigh even deeper. We all got up from our spots and moved out of the giant tree. Celestia led us to a spot in the middle of town that was surrounded by the same joyous ponies that had laughed and drank with us. Except, now they they were a lot less joyous.
Their sullen expressions matched their black attire as they stood motionlessly in front of a large monument. On it were pictures of hundreds of ponies. All smiling, laughing, drinking, or just having fun. In front of the impressive monument, which I had made out to be a chunk of one of the Canterlot castle spires, were three coffins. One was pink with two blue and one yellow bloons painted on the sides. Another was orange with three red apples on the sides. The last was a yellow coffin with three butterflies painted across the side.
The first and last were both open, showing Pinkie and Fluttershy's seemingly sleeping forms. But the middle was closed. On top of it was a picture of Applejack laughing heartily. The only reason that it was closed was that there was no body to bury. It suddenly became very clear that the monument was a memorial. I caught sight of a rainbow mane near the front of the crowd, causing me to sigh in relief. The crowd cleared a path for us to the front, were we met up with Rainbow Dash.
"Good to see that you made it." I said. She looked at me through red eyes and smiled weakly.
"It's like you said, Jack. Time will heal all wounds. In one way," She trailed off and looked towards Fluttershy's appearingly peaceful form, "Or the other." She looked back to me, "Thank you."
"For?" I asked.
"The words of wisdom." She said. My lips curled into a light smile.
"It was my pleasure." I said, "I hope they help you like they did me." The funeral went normally. Everything was in order and words were spoken about various ponies lining the monument. It was just like one of the funerals back on Earth. Except, this one was much larger. Then it came time for the eulogies. Rainbow Dash took the stage.
"Pinkie Pie was an... Energetic mare." She said, trying to find the correct words. She must have been letting Scootaloo do Fluttershy's eulogy. "As well as excitable, as I'm sure we all know." A knowing chuckle rippled though the crowd. "But there were some sides that we didn't know about. For example, twelve or so years ago, Twilight, Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and I were all planning a surprise party for her. But she took it badly when we couldn't hang out with her without a good reason. Her mane sort of... Deflated and she went a little insane. But when she found out everything, she was right back to her random old self. Recently, we found out that she had a romantic side as well." There were a few more chuckles.
"Who was the lucky stallion?" A random colt asked.
"I know Applejack was a bit tomboyish from time to time, but come on.'' She joked nervously. The crowd didn't find it very amusing, however. There were actually a few gasps. I frowned a little in confusion. It was starting to look like there were one of those horrid churches that resided in Kansas here. Scootaloo ran up onto the stage with Dash and they both addressed the restless crowd. "As few of you know, Fluttershy there was my adoptive mother. But no, I was not raised by a single mare."
"No." Dash cut her off with an affectionate smile. "She was raised by two." The crowd was silent. A smile of admiration spread across my face. Sadly, it didn't last.
"Our General is a filly-fiddler?!" A surprised mare shouted. A spike of anger hit my heart. For a moment, I thought that the Changelings were back. But no, these were the average, multicolored equine citizens of Equestria. More outraged names were case up at them.
"Stop!" A powerful voice overcame the commotion. "So is your Commander and Princess." Luna said, teleporting on to the stage with a blushing Twilight held tightly to her. The crowd was silent again. But, once more, it didn't last.
Somepony actually threw a tomato in Twilight's direction. I snapped my eyes shut and pictured myself teleporting from where I was, to in front of Twilight as the offending fruit sailed through the air. With a larching sensation, I opened my eyes to see a tomato a few feet from my face. I focused again and caught it with my magic. I slammed it down on the stage and crushed it under-hoof.
"How dare you!" I roared furiously at the entire crowd, "These ponies risked everything! They lost irreplaceable friends and even loved ones! You know why? To protect you ungrateful little shits!" The crowd was getting a little flabbergasted at my choice of words and sudden anger. Which was good.
"They wanted to save and protect you! They sacrificed everything but their lives in order to save you! To make sure you ponies stayed out of harms way. And you repay them like this?!" I said and shook my head, "That is worse than any Changeling. Maybe I should've went home, if you ponies treat heroes like this," I spat coldly. They just stood there, shocked that their hero would address them in such a manner. Though, a few came up to join me on stage.
Those included Dinky, Rarity, the lizard, Celestia, Mist Free, a white Unicorn mare with a badass mane that was colored in different hues of blue, a light blue Pegasus stallion that had a dark, navy blue mane, a tan Earth Pony stallion with a blonde and orange mane, and a grey Earth Pony with an even darker grey mane.
"'Bout time we came out of the closet, eh 'Tavi?" The Unicorn asked the grey Earth Pony with a nuzzle. The Earth Pony merely nodded and returned the nuzzle.
"Ah rightly agree with Vinyl!" The tan pony said with the same accent as Applejack, "What do ya think, Soarin?" He asked his obvious partner. in response, Soarin nodded and kissed the tan stallion. Celestia took her place beside her sister and Twilight.
"B-But love is to be shared only between a stallion and a mare!" A random pony cried out. I flew down in front of him and stared straight through him.
"Tell me, if you please? What is love?" I asked, leaning in intimidatingly.
"D-Don't hurt me!" He said, pupils shrinking in fear.
"I won't. Just answer my question."
"L-Love is something that two things share together that binds them emotionally, mentally, and physically." He answered after a moments thought.
"Exactly." I said and flew back onto the stage. "Love is eternal. In any way, shape, or form, it will always be there. Love is love. You can't stop it and honestly, I don't see how you could want to." I said. It looked like it was working. Which was pretty cool considering most of the narrow-minded idiots on Earth didn't seem to grasp the concept of love or reason.
"It's just... Gross." One stallion said.
"Gross? I hope you have something better than that, because otherwise, you're going to get left behind in the dust of a better society." I said. Dinky trotted up and kissed me.
"That was awesome." She whispered.
"Thanks." I said, "Been wanting to do that forever." One of the ponies in the audience finally spoke up.
"I really can't argue with him when I look at it that way."
"I may not like it, but hell, he has a point." Another shouted.
"Yeah. We'll try to be more accepting. For our own good." Another mare said. A smile spread across my lips.
"Now that we have settled that little issue, let's get this funeral over with." I said.
The rest of the funeral was uneventful, save for the new-found respect towards me from my newer friends. I learned their names as well, the Unicorn was Vinyl Scratch. The grey Earth Pony was Octavia. The tanish Earth Pony was Braeburn, as well as a relative of Applejack's, which explained the accent. And the blue Pegasus's name was Soarin, which I had already learned.
Honestly, the ponies accepting gays and lesbians felt like a bigger victory than when I had killed Chrysalias. Probably due to the fact that I had been trying to reason with arrogant people on Earth for years, but these ponies accepted and tolerated them in a matter of minutes! It gave me even more of a reason to believe that I had made the right choice. When the funeral was finally over, we all filed back into the Headquarters main room. And by we, I mean Twilight, Rainbow Dash, Luna, Celestia, the lizard (I really needed to ask about that), Rarity, Dinky, and I.
"Well, everypony. Today has been eventful. In any way but bad." Twilight said and shot a smile towards Luna, "But I'm sure everypony is drop-dead worn out. I say we retire to bed." All of the ponies, and the lizard, in the room yawned and nodded in response. They all filed into different parts of the Headquarters, which I had assumed to be their bedrooms. Dinky and I stayed in the main room, but I managed to catch Twilight before she had left the room completely.
"Hey, where do me and Dinky sleep at?" I asked her, causing her to smirk.
"Sleeping together, are you?" She said slyly. I blushed intensely and rose my hooves in defense.
"W-What? N-Not li-" I was cut off by Twilight laughing.
"It's alright, Jack. Luna and I are going to the same bedroom for some victory-" This time, I cut her off.
"I can go a lifetime without knowing what you are about to say." I said with a smile. She returned it with another laugh and pointed across the room to a door.
"Go through there and then take two lefts, one right, and there would be your bed from your first night here." She said
"Thanks. And one more thing, what's with the overgrown lizard?" I asked, getting a huff from her.
"That's Spike! My number one dragon assistant." She said.
"Oh. Sorry about that." I said with a chuckle let her walk through an opening that led to where Luna had gone. I quickly walked to the place with Dinky in tow. I followed Twilight's directions, and, sure enough, it led me to the same room as before.
I turned to Dinky and spoke, "Well, I suppo-" For the second time that night, I was cut off. But this time, I enjoyed it. She pressed her lips against mine and backed me to the bed. She broke away with a smirk, but quickly closed the distance again. This time, much more passionately. Her tongue invaded my mouth and wrestled with mine.
She tasted sweet. A little like cherry pie. As she explored my mouth and vice versa, I ran my hooves up and down her curves. I'm not going to go into detail about what happened next, but as you can guess, we had sex. This may sound weird, but it was better than any human girl I had ever been with. Maybe it was just Dinky. Or maybe I'd finally found my soulmate; they say it's the best sex you can find if that happens.
The sleep is the more important part to my tale. As I dozed off after our... 'Entanglement'... And was met with a familiar sight. I was back in the endless white abyss with smokey grey tendrils floating about.
"Hey," Azuro's voice found me, "Remember when I said 'For now'?" I turned towards him and nodded slowly. "Well, here we are."
"I can see that," I replied, "But why did you bring me here?" I asked.
"Because, we have a problem." He responded seriously.