We return to the town center as the sun begins to set over the horizon. Most of the ponies have gone back to their homes and the center is nearly empty now, with only a few having small conversations here and there.
Dashie's first day in the afterlife is almost over, it seems. From what I can tell, it's gone pretty well. Now it's time to wrap it up in a nice rainbow-colored bow by settling into to our not so new home.
Since Dashie has finally come through, our house appeared just a short walking distance from my parent's home. It'll be the first time that either of us have stepped foot or hoof inside our old home in fifteen years for me, and nearly double that for her, so it's going to be an interesting experience finally settling into it once again as it'll be the last place that we ever call home. We'll be living in that house for an eternity as of today, I don't think that'll be settling in anytime soon.
Dashie and I begin the short walk from my parent's house to our new home and we can see Fluttershy's cottage after a bit of walking. This is then followed by Pinkie Pie's portion of Sugarcube Corner, Rarity's Boutique, AppleJack's home and barn as well as a sized down version of her Sweet Apple Acres, and lastly Twilight's tree house library.
This brings us to our final destination: home. I can just see it off in the distance and it's getting more recognizable with each breathing step. I think back to the time that I first got the house so many years ago now. Struggling to save up any sort of money that I could while also feeding a second mouth was tough, but I pulled through in the end with some motivational support from Dashie. Not to mention getting lucky at a casino one evening.
But that's another story for another day, now's the time to take in everything that my home still has to offer.
We finally reach the asphalt driveway in front of our home and I can't help but smile as we walk up the four steps towards the front door.
"Well, Dashie. Are you ready to go inside our home?" I honestly didn't think I'd be making as big a deal out of this as I am, but I just can't help it for whatever reason.
"You bet, Pops. Even standing just outside has countless memories going through my mind. Mowing the insanely large lawn, flying above the tree line, coming home from our little fight, playing around in the yard and so much more. I can't wait to see what else goes through my mind once we're actually inside the house!"
I too, had many of those memories dancing around in my head. So many wonderful moments that I've cherished since they've happened, and I can tell that Dashie has done the same.
"Same here, Dashie. I'm just happy to finally be settling down, it's gonna be nice for a change." With that, I reach for the silver door handle, turn it to the right, and push it open.
Like a breath of fresh air, I'm greeted by the interior of the house. I notice the distinct smell that filled the entryway first. It smells just like I'd left it back when I got teleported to Equestria. It's an odd mixture of both Dashie and me, although mostly me as she wasn't in the house for those last six months, but I'm sure the normal smell will return in short time.
I take in the sight of the main hall as we slowly make our way through it. Now, I'm not too sure how this whole "house in the afterlife" thing works, but there was obviously some tinkering going on within our home, whether it be the result of magic or through some other means.
I say this because on either side of us, hanging on the walls, are all of the pictures that we'd put up over the years of living here. Baking a cake, playing out in the yard, a normal family portrait and a few other memories filled up the short hallway.
This doesn't really make any sense without some alterations, because back when Dashie was taken home, Princess Celestia magically got rid of any evidence that she ever existed in my world, which included all of her toys and our pictures as well as any part of her room or any inventions that I made to make life a little easier for her.
Even the small strands of her cyan coat that managed to engrave itself within our hallway rug disappeared. I have no idea how magic was able to pull that off, I tried for years to get it out but to no avail.
So basically everything that could've lead to anyone finding out about her existence was erased from my world, all except for two things. The memories that I cherished so dearly and our lone photo album with the note that she wrote for me inside.
We make our way through the kitchen, not saying a word as we remember all of the fun times that we had baking cakes and preparing Thanksgiving meals above everything else.
Following the flow of the house leads us into the living room, where so many memories were made. Sleeping in this very room the day we moved in due to us being too tired to get out the beds, as well as watching Saturday morning cartoons like we always had, and Dashie getting taken back to her true home.
And personally for myself, reading the note that she wrote for me countless times to the point that it was engraved in my brain, and watching that one NASCAR race and rooting for the #16 as its colors and overall spirit reminded me of Dashie. This, of course, lead to that cyan feather glowing and transporting me to Equestria for a few brief minutes and a month and a half later being taken there permanently to live out the rest of my days with my daughter.
I sit down on our couch and let out a sigh as I do. Dashie notices this and does the same. We have a moment of silence to take in our surroundings. We haven't even ventured upstairs yet, but that can wait until later.
Once the gravity of the situation settles in, I break the silence.
"It's a lot to take in, isn't it?"
"You bet it is, Pops. So many great memories all rolled up into a single house. The whole time I lived here, I never really stopped to think about all the memories that were made in a single room alone, much less the entire place."
It warms my heart that she feels the same way about all of this.
I give her a warm smile and she does the same back to me, and for some reason, I can't help but start laughing. At first, it's just a slight chuckle, but it quickly turns into all-out laughter. I get a confused look from Dashie at first, but just like a yawn, my happiness spreads onto her and she joins in on the laugh-fest, with both of us seemingly without a care in the world.
We nearly fall off of the couch because of all the laughter, and we realize that we should probably settle down before we break something. By the time we get all of the giggles out of our system, we both have tears flowing down our face.
Apparently, laughing that much really takes it out of you, as I must've fallen asleep at some point. I honestly expected myself to be wide awake due to such an interesting event, but after the long hours of celebrating and unveiling secret surprises to Dashie, my body had other plans.
We share a short dream together, of both of us flying through the golden sky once again.
I'm not sure how long I was out before I awaken, but it doesn't matter; as I close my eyes, I feel something against my side. I look, and sleeping beside me is the not so small any more cyan mare; her rainbow mane and tail still, her head resting on the inside of my elbow.
I know the meme gets old, but I must say it. My heart exploded.
Laying there, sleeping and curled up beside me had me smiling ear to ear. Her gentle breaths are barely heard. The hairs on her mane tickle my arm, but I hold back any movement to itch. The warmth of her body against my stomach warms my heart. I guess three years isn't a terribly long time, but it's how long I've been waiting for a moment like this to happen again. My own little pony, a Rainbow Dash plushie to sleep with and hold tight. And now I have a real Rainbow Dash once more, a mare, sleeping at my side; content as though she's known me since birth, as she basically has.
Right now, there's nothing else that matters to me. All of the time that I'd been waiting for her goes unnoticed as nothing else can come remotely close to the feeling I have right now; this joy I'm experiencing at this moment as I lay awake on my couch. She is here. She is real. She is back. Right now, she is my little pony. She is...-
KNOCK KNOCK
I jump a little, caught off guard by the knocking. I'm annoyed. Why do we have to be disturbed during moments like this? That's when it always happens, you know; when everything's perfect and you don't have to worry about anything.
Okay, I'm overreacting a bit.
I carefully move Dashie, making sure not to wake her and head towards the door. I open it as quietly as I can, and upon seeing five of my favorite ponies on the patio looking up at me, I step outside and carefully shut the door behind me.
"Sorry for not answering when you knocked. Dashie's on the couch sleeping, are you wanting to see her?" From this, Twilight is the first to answer.
"Well, sort of... We have some news to share with the two of you. It's kind of important."
Before I can respond back, I hear the front door opening behind me as Dashie must've heard our talking and came outside to see what it was all about.
"Hey, guys. What's going on?" Before any of us could answer her, Pinkie Pie bounces up the front steps and nearly tackles Dashie to the ground.
"Dashie!" The pink mare gives Dashie a tight hug and she returns it. This gets some giggles from our friends before Rarity chimes in with an answer for her.
"Well, darling, we were hoping that we could speak with both of you. We've made an important discovery and thought that you two should hear about the news."
Dashie gives her a smile as she replies. "Oh, sure! We'd love to hear it, right Dad?"
She looks to me waiting for a quick answer. "Oh yeah, sure thing. Come on in and make yourselves comfortable." I turn around and open the door, gesturing for everypony to come inside. Dashie flies in first, followed by Twilight Sparkle, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy and lastly Pinkie Pie bounces in.
I close the door behind them and see that they've all gladly made themselves at home by sitting on both the furniture and the living room rug. They're positioned oddly enough like they were the first time they were ever in this house, but I'll leave that to a coincidence.
I take a seat on the couch next to Twilight. Dashie, as usual, opts for her recliner.
"So... What's the news?" As much as I think about it, I can't seem to figure out what it might be, and judging by Dashie's confused look, she's probably faring all the same.
Twilight is the pony to answer. "Well, as you both can recall, four of us strangely disappeared from Equestria and ended up here along with Fluttershy. We thought it was worth finding out exactly what caused that to happen in the first place. Simple enough, I'd imagine."
I instinctively look to Dashie awaiting her response. Her ears droop and her head hangs low, and although I'm not showing it, I feel very much the same on the inside.
Dashie looks back up to Twilight and her friends with a frown upon her face. "That must've sucked so bad... having your lives ended so abruptly without being able to fully enjoy them. I can't imagine how that must have made you guys feel."
To the surprise of everypony, Fluttershy chooses to speak. "Oh, Rainbow Dash, don't feel bad for us. We all agree that our lives were wonderful and we wouldn't want our time to end in any other way except by being with each other."
Dashie perks up a bit at Fluttershy's words and gives her a nod in return. Seeing this, Twilight continues.
"So, after many attempted spells in my library, we're proud to say that we've got an answer!" Twilight looks around the room, waiting to see if anypony had anything to say to that. When it becomes apparent nopony was, she continues.
"Basically, I used the same spell that Princess Celestia used to go through dimensions so that we could observe Equestria. We figured some sort of energy was behind our disappearance, so we observed other situations where a disappearance could occur to see if any strange energy filled the area in which it was happening. After a few times, we realized that there was a pattern with every scenario. Each time, a certain wavelength would present itself at a certain measurement. We then sampled this energy and identified it as a sort of energy booster."
Both Dashie and I give Twilight blank looks. Her explanation seemed to go on a tangent and felt impossible to follow. Twilight takes notice of this and gets up off of the couch.
"Let's make an example," Twilight walks through the kitchen and seems to be looking for something. I almost get up to help when I see her walking back into the living room with an air freshener spray bottle, of all things. "Think of the room as the atmosphere in an area of Equestria, and think of the chemicals inside this spray bottle as the energy booster I mentioned earlier."
Twilight begins to spray upwards with her magic as she continues talking. "When the air pressure in a given area is just right, it releases this unnoticeable chemical into the air in small doses, which in turn boosts the motivation, confidence, spell intensity and overall energy levels of a single pony in that area. Applejack, Pinkie Pie, Rarity and I disappeared just after Rainbow Dash performed the Sonic Rainboom and this leads us to believe that she got the energy booster."
I listen anxiously as Twilight continues. "Just to make things clear, Rainbow. Your Sonic Rainboom had nothing to do with our disappearance. We believe it's much more likely that the chemical in the air had a negative effect on anypony it didn't affect positively."
To this, Dashie looks somewhat relieved, although I can't imagine that all of her unnecessary guilt has vanished just yet.
Twilight pauses for a moment, gathering her words. "So, the real answer as to why we disappeared would be that the negative chemical in the air might've mixed in with the remanence of a teleportation spell that occurred shortly before the disappearance. This mixture must've gotten into our lungs and, by chance, teleported us here..."
The purple mare looks towards us waiting for some kind of reaction. After a few seconds of silence, I speak.
"Well, although that's kind of confusing, I guess it's a much better answer than any of us could ever come up with. Good job Twilight, but one thing still doesn't make sense with that answer. You said that a mix of the chemical and a teleportation spell teleported you all here, but then what about Fluttershy? She didn't disappear. From what I've been told, she just got really sick and passed for unknown reasons. "
The book-smart pony looks up at the ceiling while holding a hoof up to her chin. Moments later, she replies.
"Well, I guess if a teleportation spell can mix with the chemical, then any other spell could as well. Maybe Fluttershy happened to be near the spot where somepony had recently used a dehydration spell to dry themselves off or something... That may sound quite unfortunate, and it is. But I don't see a reason why it couldn't be possible."
I almost speak up again, but this time Dashie beats me to it.
"That's so awful... having that happen to you guys due to some strange weather phenomenon. It's not fair. There's gotta be some sort of spell that you can do to let the five of you spend some time in Equestria to make up for it."
As fair as that would be, I doubt there's a spell for something like that. Even magic has its own limitations. Luckily for everypony, Applejack stifles Dashie's idea.
"Well as nice as that sounds, I think wer' happier here. Nothin' to really go back to fer us, most of our family's up here. So thanks fer the offer, but I think I speak fer everypony when I say that won't be necessary."
The four other ponies caught up in the mess chime in one by one.
"Absotutley-lootely!" Pinkie Pie cheered.
"Oh, why absolutely, darling!" Rarity replied.
"I couldn't have said it better myself, Applejack!" Twilight praised.
"Yeah, I'm happy here." Fluttershy commented
They all look to Dashie with toothy smiles spread across each of their faces. I chime in myself, not wanting to miss a chance to be smug.
"Well, it looks like your mind's been changed for you!" I can't hold back a laugh, and the others, even Dashie, join in with me for a few seconds.
After the laughter subsides, she responds. "Yeah, Dad, I guess my mind has been changed for me. But hey, if you're all happy, I see no reason why I can't be happy!"
Before anypony else can say a word, Pinkie Pie excitingly makes her way in. "Awww, group hug!"
I'm still not too sure how she ever pulls off stuff like this, but she somehow gets her two hooves to wrap around all of us and squeeze us together into a big group hug. I guess I'll just leave it to her being Pinkie.
After a minute or two of hugging, she lets us all go from her grasp. We say a few more words to each other and our friends eventually leave with smiles plastered on their faces.
---------- (later that evening)
The sun is beginning to set, all of our friends have gotten up and left, assuring us that they'd be over tomorrow. Dashie has stayed up to help me hang something on my wall. My mother's painting, the only piece of decor I'd brought from my old home. It seems everywhere I go, this painting follows. We hang it just above the fireplace, a suiting spot. It was the centerpiece of the room and, other than Dashie herself, was the most colorful thing in here.
“It’s as beautiful as always, Dad.” she leans her head on my thigh. I rest my hand on her mane and stroke it gently, staring at the picture.
“I agree, and I agree because it's you,” I say quietly. She looks up at me for a moment, her rose eyes looking into mine in the realization that I'm purposely copying what I said on one of my first few nights in Equestria. She smiles when she understands why, and I return the smile back. “Dashie, wanna bunk in with me tonight?” I ask her. She smiles even bigger.
“Thought you’d never ask! Race you to the bed!” She yells and is gone in a flash. “I win!”
I can't help but laugh a little bit, noticing that she's gotten in on the copying. “Yes, Dashie, you win. You always did!” I call back to her. “I’ll be right there, I just need to do something,” I say, my voice getting quieter as I say it. I walk up to my mom's painting, and I rest a hand on it. “I did it, Mom. I’m finally happy again, just like you wanted. And this time we can all be happy, together,” I say quietly, a small tear slides down my face. I stand there for a moment, realizing what I just said. ‘I’m happy again, and I forever will be because of-’ my thought is cut off.
“DAAAAD! Are you comin' or what?” Dashie calls from the bedroom.
“Yes, Dashie, I’m coming!” I shout back, “because of her,” I continue my thought out loud.
“Huh? Did you say somethin’ this time Pops?” Dashie says, poking her head out of the door from upstairs.
"Yes, actually,” I smile, “I did. Maybe I'll tell you someday. Here I come!” I turn and run up the stairs for the doorway she's sitting in. Her face instantly has a grin on it, and her eyes are angled right at me. She bolts back into the room, with me hot on her rainbow tail.
----------
Laughter can be heard through the small window in the bedroom as Dashie and her father play and wrestle deep into the night. When they turn out the lights, they connect in their dreams again like they had back in Equestria. They are flying over the golden sky just outside of their home. Even after all this time, nothing has changed in her father, he's still keeping up with her. She looks back and to her surprise, finds “Pops” right next to her. She opens her wings and pulls up into the sky, he follows her up, no more than a foot behind her. Together they loop and roll in their dreams, deep into the afterlife's golden night.
----------
At some point I find myself waking up, with Dashie's sleeping body all but wrapping around my own. I try to go back to sleep for a few minutes, but it comes to no avail. I turn on my side table lamp to its dimmest setting and grab the photo album from the nightstand.
I go through the whole thing, from my childhood with my parents to the lonely times I experienced after their death and before finding Dashie. It then picks back up again after finding her and a slew of photos are crammed into the next few pages before she got taken back to Equestria.
With this, is the original note that she wrote for me along with the modified version. I'm not too sure how that happened, but it doesn't really matter. I didn't add to it during those six months away from her as I just didn't feel that anything remarkable had happened during that time. But of course, the photo album managed to sneak its way into Equestria somehow and we added to it a whole lot more.
It seems that Dashie tried continuing it herself after my passing, but she never truly looked happy in any of the pictures that she added. And now, this leads us to today. The beginning of our eternal peace with each other. We're going to find a whole lot more to put into this photo album, I'll have to get a new one eventually.
I turn to the first blank page in our photo album, and I feel a single tear slide down my left cheek. I still got a lot of life ahead of me, an eternity actually. And I plan to make the best of it.
For myself...
As I say those words in my mind, I feel the warmth and softness of Dashie's cyan coat rub against my arm. My heart explodes for the thousandth time in my life. I can hear my beautiful daughter mumbling to herself in her sleep.
"Goodnight, Daddy... I love you."
I smile as I lean forward and kiss her on the forehead. "Goodnight, my little Dashie. I love you too."
For my little Dashie.
THE END