Memories From Monday

by Fire-Dash

Wake Up

Mondays sure are awful, aren't they? You know, when you have to get up early, brush your teeth, attempt to brush your mane, give up because the damn thing's so tangled you don't even care. Eat breakfast, brush your teeth again because you forgot you had to eat breakfast first, then try to stretch out your wings because you guess you slept on them funny but that's weird because you usually sleep on your stomach with your limbs spread out all over the bed and there's no way—whatever. Mondays. So you do all that and you yawn and step outside, ready for your annoying job—and the entire world collapses under your hooves.

And you realize you're falling and—

Oh, Celestia! I'm falling! Damn it! Wings, right—use those. How am I—why won't my wings work? Come on... come on you stupid, bucking, blue-feathered wastes of flesh—work!

I'm tumbling forward, clouds racing up all around me. I can't move my wings at all... they just won't work! I'm rushing forward through the sky, faster and faster and faster and—

Everything stops.

I open my eyes.

Darkness.

What the— “Where am I?” I call out. My voice echoes across the blackness. Like it's taunting me. “Hey! Anypony out there? Pinkie? Is... is this some kind of prank? Because I think you're going a little far. I-I mean, props for making it so believable and... and well, I'll admit this is kinda scary but come on, that's enough.”

In the distance something makes a sound like a chuckle. Soft and quiet, but definitely there.

I take a cautious step forward. “Pinkie?”

“You can't pass on like that, you know,” says a familiar voice in my ear.

I jump, spinning around, trying to peer through the dark. “Hey! I know you!” I call but I still can't see. That voice... I should have known.

“Oh do you, now? I should hope so. We've been acquainted more than once, Rainbow Dash. Or I should say 'Rainbow Crash' with the way you went. Reliving it just now? Last thoughts of an echoed consciousness now fading away.” The voice sighs. “It's really quite depressing. You're dampening my otherwise fabulous mood. I was just about to go pull a few harmless pranks on Fluttershy when I got the memo.”

I shake my head. Yes, I definitely know who this is. “Discord. What in Celestia's name do you think you're doing? Come on, this is too much. I thought you were on our side now!”

I can hear Discord's echoed laughter ringing through the abyss. It's making me angry. I stomp my hooves on the ground, again and again, trying to get the moron's attention when—

-The floor is suddenly gone.

My hooves sink through thin air and my body follows with them, falling again. Again! And I can't move my wings. Folded tight to my sides, not willing to unfurl. “Discord! Stop! What are you doing?”

He laughs again and I can see him now, falling beside me, looking nonchalant, wearing a mischievous half-grin on his stupid face. “I'm doing my job, Rainbow. I can't believe you haven't realized it yet. You do know you're dead, don't you? I'd understand if it was something simple, like a sudden hit to the head or a hurricane throwing you off to nowhere or even a simple nightmare-induced heart-attack. But you initiated it yourself and still you can't remember. Tsk. I'm so disappointed.”

“What?” I yell and the floor suddenly reappears and smacks me in the face. I groan, laying there a moment before jumping back to my hooves (though really unsteadily and disoriented). “What do you mean dead? Discord? Discord!” I look around frantically because the idiot's gone now and I don't know what to do. What in Celestia's name do I do?

“Oh don't be that way.” Discord's voice. He's above me, drifting down lightly, holding an opened red umbrella. He lands softly beside me and grins, closing the umbrella and tossing it behind him into oblivion. “You're not going to be one of those whiny, 'I wanna go home, I don't wanna be dead, oh boohoo hoo...' types, are you?” He yawns. “They bore me to death, those ones. Never requesting anything but 'please let me live again'. Bor-ing.”

I stare at him. “You're not just playing a trick on me, are you? I'm... I'm actually dead?”

“As a door-nail,” Discord replies. He holds out that weird lion-paw he has and a tea-cup manifests out of nowhere, hot, steaming tea pouring down from the abyss into it. “Would you like some? Earl-grey. I knew someone once who rather liked this brand. Frankly, I never saw what was so great about it at first but it really is growing on me. Go on, try a cup.” He holds the teacup out to me and I growl.

“Tea?” I snap. “You're telling me I'm dead and you're offering me tea? What kind of consolation is that?”

“Touchy,” Discord mutters, drinking the cup and letting the tea hover for a moment before he flicks it away and it shatters like glass, tumbling down to nowhere beneath us. “Very well. Enjoy your tea-less existence in the land of nothing. If you won't be nice to the God of the Afterlife, who could offer you your own personal paradise, then go ahead. Be miserable. See if I care.” He turns to walk away then but I stop him. I have to. I mean, come on? What am I going to do here all alone?

“Wait! I-I'm just confused. I don't... I mean, I remember waking up this morning and walking outside and—“ I shake my head. “That's how it ends? My wings fall asleep and I plummet to my death from my cloud-house doorstep?”

Discord laughs. Again. Celestia, am I ever getting sick of his laughter. “You're so narrow-minded, Rainbow Dash. Expand your thinking a little. That would be a good way to go, though. No real pain. Quick and easy. But that isn't exactly how it went.” He grins, looking me in the eyes. “And besides, that would be boring.”

“Not how it—“ I stop myself. Hold on a second, did Discord just refer to himself as.... “Wait. The 'God of the Afterlife'? What do you mean by that? You're in charge of where ponies go when they die? You? But... but you're not a god. You're not anything, you're just... chaos!”

“And death is chaotic, isn't it? Confusing and uncertain and a surprise around every corner! Oh, I am something, Rainbow Dash. I can make two plus two equal lettuce. Who else but a god could do that?”

I can't accept this. I won't accept this! I'm not dead. I'm just—

“Having a nightmare?” A dark navy sky suddenly forms above me. Thick, black clouds swirl and cover the moon. Dark trees rise all around me, their gnarled branches reaching up into the air, clawing at bats spinning in chaotic circles, attacking each other at random. Somewhere in the distance, a lone wolf howls. “Oh yes, I'm in your mind too. This is your consciousness and I'm in control for now. You're dead. You don't get a say. Your mind is drifting away but I can hold it together. All those chaotic little bits and pieces scattered everywhere. This is you and this is the nothingness, where everyone ends up eventually. Disappointed yet? I told you it was depressing.”

“The nothingness?” I ask, trying not to let my fear show. I-I mean, this is pretty freaking unnerving. I'm dead and I'm trapped in an abyss and Discord can do whatever he wants with my... soul? My consciousness? I don't even know....

“Yes, the nothingness. Are you even listening? I've mentioned it several times now. That's what this place is. The realm between realms. That blank space between everything that exists and ever will exist and there's me and my chaos sitting in the middle of reality itself. Because it's all chaos! All madness! Hah! Life is just insanity. All of it.” He falls backwards and drifts in mid-air on his back. “And you, dear Rainbow Dash, are stuck here between realms because you're uncertain.”

I stare at him. “Uncertain of what? Isn't this where everypony goes?”

“For a little while. But you've been reliving that same Monday morning for quite a while now and it's different every time. Most ponies pass on without my assistance. Ah, but you are different. Like a few before you. Well, more than a few. Some have trouble with death, you see. Your memories just refuse to die with you.” He shakes his head, looking a bit exasperated. “It's making things difficult and I do hate it when that happens. You know, you could help me out, make this go quick, if you'd just tell me one thing.”

I blink. I don't know what he wants or if I even want to hear the question. This is... this is nuts! I've been living that same morning over and over? I don't remember that! I don't remember much of anything... just... waking up. I take a deep breath. “What is it?” I ask, my voice catching on something in the back of my throat.

Discord studies me a moment, getting a strange, almost... concerned look in his eyes before clearing his throat to ask the question. “Why did you have to kill yourself, Rainbow Dash?”

Comments

[Monochromatic Rainbow]

Ok, wow, was not expecting this to be so gripping!

I don't really see any grammar mistakes, and normally I'd fuss about the change from 2nd to first person, but this was done rather well!

+1 Stalker lurking in the shadows~

[Ribe_FireRain]

Hmm I thought it would be unusual for Rainbow to fall to her death, seeing she is a Pegasus but then she snaps out of it like a nightmare becoming reality and it IS reality?!

She committed suicide?!?!?

ITS ALWAYS GOTTA BE DASHIE!!!!! D: