For Those Below

by GrizzlytheMedic

Prologue

Death. It’s an all too real concept for most ponies since it affects them when they least expect it.
Personally, Death didn’t like all the misconceptions ponies had about her. She was just an ordinary mare that was doing her job. That job being to escort ponies to the great beyond after their demise.

She’d been doing her job longer than Celestia and Luna had been doing theirs, so she deserved a little credit. You would assume that cheating her is what she hates. That notion is quite false. As a matter of fact, she had been giving ponies second chances at life for eons now. For Goddess’ sake! It was as if ponies only saw the bad and eerie death part. It was as if the mere concept itself was a rat in the corner of a dingy room.

As for looks, ponies had been getting it wrong for as long as she existed. She had no bucking clue where the idea of a living skeleton with a scythe wearing a black cloak had appeared. Frankly, she loathed it with all her being. She was quite an attractive mare, at least, the stallions who saw her told her so. Her grey ethereal mane waved in an invisible wind, her dark indigo eyes sparkled like stars and her sooty black coat was still silky smooth after all these years. It made her blush to be called beautiful despite the fact that she was tens of thousands of years old.

Death was a tricky business. The old mares and stallions always got lost and somehow made it to the wrong afterlife, the young ones were always stubborn and had trouble adjusting to life after death. They came and went in the masses, not many ponies stuck out to her anymore.

But every now and again there was a special incident that even she likes to remember. It was the good old “second chance” cliche. As cheesy as it sounds, it works to a surprising extent. Many take the advice to heart after seeing their own death played back before them. Most of them had met a terrible fate like an accident at work or even suicide. As the Spirit of the Afterlife, she herself knew when it was time for a pony to pass on, so nopony made the journey beyond if it wasn’t their time.

Death sighed with a smile as she took a seat for a little while and remembered those ponies who truly made the most of their encounter with her.

Comments

[Piecemeal Pony]

Another story offering a different perspective on death. I like this.