Ascension
I have a little story to tell, but let’s start off with a brief introduction on how it all began. This might be a little sad, and maybe no one will ever read this, but if you do come across this some how, tell my friends, I love them and I never left.
So let’s begin, shall we? After years of training and preparing, I’m ready to show off for the Wonderbolts! Everyone came to see me today, I’m the main attraction of the Summer Sun Celebration and the most awesome-est pegasus to ever take flight. I have the confidence, the skill, the nerve, I have it all. I have friends and fans to cheer me on as I sailed through the skies above. I knew I was about to acquire my dream finally and then I would have anything a speedster like me could ask for. Once I became famous as a Wonderbolt, I would give everyone of my friends the life of luxury, they deserve it as much as I do; but to think, me, Rainbow Dash, a Wonderbolt, even I can’t comprehend it! After years of training, practicing and being pushed to my limits from my best friends, I finally was ready to show the whole world who the greatest flyer in all of Equestria is! Legends will be past on from generation to generation of this life changing event. I will inspire pegasi everywhere with my flying expertise to try harder and to never give up. My mind was racing with the soon to be glory I was about to receive. The spot light was on me now, everypony watching and cheering as I prepped myself for take off. I didn’t boast and I didn’t show overconfidence, I stood there as the symbol for universal ‘Awesomeness’.
I took off into the skies for the crowd, trailing my signature, ‘Rainbow Trail’ in my wake. After some high somersaults and mind melting aerial maneuvers to get the crowds hyped up. I dove for the crowd, keeping my wings steady and my wits intact. I spiked upward as soon I was ready and sent a gust of air hurling towards the ponies below, ruining anypony’s mane that day.
So I did some more little tricks and what not, yada-yada... let’s skip the boring stuff, you know how awesome I am already. So, for the grand finale, the big maama jamma, the cat’s pajamas, I would perform a sonic rainboom! Easy stuff, right? I’ve done this a hundred times before and I could do it again, heck, I could do this in my sleep, while blindfolded and having Pinkie Pie ride on my back. Which, interestingly enough, was the last pony I waved at before ascending into sky for my show stopper. I think I miss her the most... well, back to the amazing story.
I flew up in the air and folded my wings in, letting gravity take control of my body. Just levitating there for a split second, admiring the silence I was about to break. The crowd below was in awe, of course, they knew I was about to end this routine with an amazing finale. Gravity finally pulled me back down and I steadied my body for a nose dive. I swung my wings open and flapped them as hard as I could. Everything was going perfect, I was gaining momentum and the trajectory of my body was in line with my target. I with spike upward just in time before hitting the ground so the crowd would see how incredible a sonic rainboom was up close was. I could feel the air around me encompassing my body, the color formations changing around me, I was nearly there; but then, something I can’t even explain happened. I don’t remember it to clearly and can’t exactly tell you why it happened, but it did happen, and it changed everything.
I felt as if the wind or something swayed me off balance just a ‘teenie-tiny’ bit, enough to set me off course. The strange thing is though, at that speed and angle, nothing could really throw me off balance unless I stopped flapping all together. Something that fateful day threw me off key and I felt something was wrong.
I tried to stabilize my body whenever I felt that... something push me a tad bit. I was going too fast to stop now and I wasn’t planning on stopping, I felt like I could control this and fix it. I tried and tried again to get myself steady and back on trajectory, my confidence began fleeting me and soon was replaced by panic, then fear, then terror. I’ve never been so afraid in my life, I was staring death in the face, I had lost control and was plummeting devastatingly fast towards the ground in front of the crowds. There was nothing I could do now, I curled up into a ball as I hit the ground at speeds in which pegasi were terrified at flying at. That’s all I really remember, everything went black, of course. I didn’t feel pain, surprisingly though, I felt comfort... relaxation in a sense. Something wasn’t right, and soon I would find out the truth.
It was June first on a Summer Evening, the day of my death. My body was crippled and broken as I took my last breath.
I opened my eyes slowly to see myself. I gasped in shock, looking over my deformed and shattered body below. I looked back at myself and realized that my body was fine, but strangely it glowed faintly with a surreal, faint light which ebbed off my coat and mane. I looked back down at my now deceased, earthly form and laughed.
I said to myself, “Dang, Rainbow Dash, you were a good looking pony. Still looking totally awesome, even when as dead as a doornail.”
I looked back towards the crowds, their eyes and expressions in horror as they looked at my physical body. They couldn’t see me, the ghostly body of my former self. I waved at them stupidly to try and get their attention, but with no luck. Five mares bursts forth from the crowds to see my body, my five friends, with Pinkie Pie running the fastest ahead. She slide on her knees and cradled my dead body in her hooves.
She screamed in utter horror, “Rainbow Dash! Rainbow Dash! Dashieee!”
Pinkie sobbed uncontrollable while she held my tangible body up to her chest. I wanted to reach out and comfort her to tell her that I was okay, but I just couldn’t do it. I couldn’t produce the words from my mouth and I couldn't fly over to her. That’s when I realized I wasn’t even flying at all and was just hovering there in the air without effort at all. The only thing I could do was watch my friends pull Pinkie away from my body as she fought to hold on to me again.
Screams and crying moans from the crowd had slowly became louder as they had realized what had happened. I felt so ashamed of myself, failing everyone and even worse, having to go kill myself in front of a live audience. For some reason though, I didn’t let it get to me for too long. I remember not being too saddened by this experience at all, in fact, I was too much in a relaxed state to be sad over anypony or this tragic event. It was a strange feeling I can’t really express in words, but maybe one day you’ll feel it too. Maybe one day when you die, whomever you are, that you won’t worry about your death and accept your new afterlife, maybe then you’ll understand what I felt that day.
Before I ascended any higher above the crowds, I noticed two pair of eyes looking at me in the center of the masses. Both Princess Celestia and Princess Luna noticed my ethereal soul hovering above my dead body. They just expressed warm smiles and direct eye contact with me, all I could do was wave back and smiled. I’m not sure how they saw me, but it made me feel much more confident about ascending into the unknown than before.
That’s when it happened, my body finally traveled faster and faster into the sky. Soon I was racing through the clouds, much faster than I had ever traveled in my drastically cut off lifetime. I soon reached into the orbit of my home planet, though for some reason, this didn’t seem to me like a momentous sight; maybe it was just the mood I was in. Let me just tell you from experience, space isn’t really that beautiful as from what all those scientist ponies make it out to be, it’s kind of boring, I mean, what did you expect, it’s nothingness.
Well anyways, I’ll skip some more boring stuff, I traveled faster and faster until the stars that traveled by were going so quickly that it created a tunnel of white light around me. Light just seemed to cover all sides of me and I was in a new space, a bright, peaceful area. I felt my body no longer traveling at great speeds and I felt as if I was once again levitating there, in the deep and vast unknown.
My mind soon caught up to me and I began to think of what was going to happen next. Maybe all these events meant that there was a, ‘god’ and that a, ‘heaven’ existed. I didn’t care too much about all the philosophical stuff back in Equestria, I had priorities elsewhere, but yea, I knew a bit about it. From what my mother told me, as long as I was a good mare and did good things in my life that I would go to heaven. I wasn’t particularly worried, but sort of fascinated by this whole new experience. I was an anxious young mare waiting to hear what ‘God’ had to say about me and my life. Maybe he would give me a gift for saving Equestria those countless times with my friends, but he might send me downstairs for last year’s love affair. Well who cared really, I didn’t, I was chill about this whole ordeal. You know, it was all a mystery and I would know when I got there; I kept my cool and had the notion that I would be accepted into those pearly gates. Besides, everyone dies eventually, I just had to follow the bright light at the end of the tunnel like they do in the movies.
It seemed like hours went by hovering in this bright tunnel. This isn’t heaven or tartarus, this realm is lifeless. I asked myself if I did something horribly I just simply overlooked back in Equestria that lead me to this limbo. I mean, yes of course I’ve done some bad things in my life, I’ve said some things I shouldn’t have said, and surly my overconfidence warped my sense of reality sometimes; but I really don’t think I did anything that would lead me to this celestial prison. This constant traveling down a never ending tunnel towards this bright light now left me bored. No directions, no way to turn or move elsewhere, just hovering slowly. In fact, I wasn’t even sure if I was moving any more, it was heard to tell at that point in my journey.
In a split second, the bright light which I had strived for flashed before me and split into two directions. My body hovered to the ground, which glowed like the light I was following. I soon realized it was a road I was on and now the road split into two directions. Before I could even choose which way to go, two celestial beings formed as if from no where in front of me, they faded into my reality and blocked both directions to the road. They stood tall and menacingly, but they shimmered like the sun as the bright lights behind them reflected off their armor. The alicorns, faced shrouded in light and plate metal, looked down at me.
My over confidence protruded forward when asking, “So, what do I have to do to see the big pony in charge here?” With their eyes blazing like fires locked into mine, the one on my right stepped forward.
His voice I could only conceivably describe as like thunder and choirs of ponies said, “One of us always lies and the other always tells the truth-”
The other alicorn stepped forward and added to his kin’s response, “ask the right one the right question, and he will direct you to heaven.”
“But if you ask the wrong one, my dear mare, you’ll go straight to...”
Well, you get the picture...
The one on my left jumped in and said, “Don’t listen to the other’s lies, it’s not that hard to find out where God lives. Here, take this path, it’s really that easy. Tell God I said, ‘hi’ when I get there for me, will you?”
I felt a strong belief in what this alicorn had to say and was soon about to fly down his path.
I unfolded my wings ready to rocket down the bright road, but the other alicorn jumped in and warned, “Don’t believe his fibs!”
“Dear sweet Celestia!” I cried out, realizing this would be much more harder than I thought. I would have tried to stay alive forever and never try pulling stunts like ‘sonic rainbooms’ if I knew this was what the afterlife held for me. I was never good at riddles and problem solving, especially in emergencies, though I get a tad bit nervous when concerned for burning forever in a lake of fire.
My heart raced, thinking of clever responses and ways to somehow get around this predicament. The two alicorns stood like statues emotionlessly in the pathways, I was unable to tell a difference between the two. An idea sprung into my head and I rubbed my hooves together, knowing that this question would definitely lead to the right answer.
I asked, “Which one of you lie?”
The two pointed at each other simultaneously. I had them right where I wanted to be, I knew the answer, but wanted to make sure I was right.
I continued, “What’s the name of my mother?”
The right one answered, “I don’t know.”
The left one then answered, “I know, but I cannot tell you, Rainbow Dash.”
I began pulling at my mane in frustration, I thought I had it, but they found a way around it! I was so mad and furious, my mind clouded my judgment. I began asking off subject questions to see if one of them would say something that would give me the idea that he was lying. Even after a few hours of asking, my mind was weary as they stood there still, indifferent and tall. My mind was at a melting point, the anger that build up inside was about to erupt. I flew up to both of their lines of sight and gave those alicorns a few choice words; some of which were too filled with curse words to remember correctly, but this basically was all I said.
“You think this is some type of game? Risking every pony’s afterlife to see if they can choose which road leads to heaven or tartarus? You mean to tell me that eternal happiness or damnation are just a misstep away, that one careless answer could lead to either? These higher up beings gamble with other ponies lives like this is some game. It makes me sick to think the universe thinks like this, and that jerks like you run it.”
After a lengthy rant, I awaited their responses, both were still stone cold and silent as before. I became even more mad and quickly turned my back away from the alicorns. As soon as I did this basic motion, the anger I was expressing soon evaporated, I was speechless. Once I turned my back towards the guardians of the bright light, I found myself at Heaven’s gates, swung wide open for my arrival and acceptance. I slowly walked in and everything I ever wanted to know was answered right then and there. When this knowledge flooded my mind, the only thing I could express was a true, genuine smile.
So I’m writing this letter from Heaven, I’ve only been up for what seems to be a few hours, but maybe much longer, my perception of time is now unexplainable to written text, and even if I told you out loud, it would still be unfathomable to your held back minds. I see my planet below, or some planet, and I hope to drop this letter down below to at least tell my side of the story of my death. So I hope that somepony (or whomever) reads this letter and tells my friends about my journey to heaven. I think they would be happy to know I made it safely and that I’m happy. I also want them to not hold on to my death, but to keep living their lives and know that I’m in a happier place.
I want to tell them one thing though before I put this in an envelope and it drop down below into my past realm of space and time. I want to tell them that life is about living and accepting everything, that you are in control of your life, and at the same time your not, and it’s all okay and fine. Because everything is going to work out in the end, even if you see no way out of your own problems you are facing. The most complex questions you have in life are the most simplest answers. Though lastly, I just want to say that I love you all, everyone that’s living, friends and foes, because life is precious and worth it. Whoever you are that finds this letter, please make sure my friends see this, Twilight, Rarity, Fluttershy, Applejack, and my dearest friend, Pinkie Pie. Tell them I love them and I can’t wait to see them soon.
