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// 020 Life's End 
// Story: The Life Returns 
// by Dress72 
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020
The day of the wedding rolled around, and I could hear bells ringing through the cambers of the dungeon. It didn’t take long before I heard screaming, and an echo reverberated throughout the castle, “Shining Armor’s love has made me even more powerful then Celestia!”
I sighed. They had been warned about this, yet they didn’t listen. Nothing I could do but wait and be let out. Or so I thought. You see it puzzles me how careless ponies can be when a crises arises.
“Daddy! Daddy! Bad pony things are attacking the city. Do something!” The sound of hooves clicked down the hallway to the cell I was in, displaying Jake before the outside of my cell. I had asked Shining to make sure that he was protected, and yet here he was, without any guards. I couldn’t bring him into the cell to protect him as I didn’t have the keys.
“Sorry, Jake, but I tried warning them about this, but they ignored it. If I wasn’t here, then I would...”
Jake turned his head towards where he had come, and the sound of buzzing could be heard. I watched as he turned to run, but was pounced on the head by a creature that looked like a pony, but with severe differences. An audible snap was heard, and Jake collapsed, limp and unmoving, a thin trail of blood starting to trickle out of his mouth.
Time seemed to freeze at this point. I could feel the rage boil up in me and explode. I almost lost consciousness, but managed to suppress the feeling. Time came back into play, and the first thing that happens is the entirety of the bars holding me within the cell shatter, millions of pieces of metal shrapnel formed instantaneously due to pressure. The second thing that happens is the metal scatter, all hitting the thing that was still standing on my son’s head. To say that it was shredded to pieces would be a complete understatement. Its entirety was no more than small chunks of black flesh and green blood, hanging on metal that still swirled around the hallway.
I went to Jake, and picked him up, his body still warm, yet everything was utterly limp. I tried in vain to find a pulse within his still small body. His head was swinging back and forth slightly, creating the faint grinding noise of two bones. Tears that rolled down my cheeks became stranded within my fur. How I hated this world at this moment; how I just wanted to destroy it; how I longed that this was just a dream that I could wake up from and have the assurance that my son was alive and well, sleeping within his bed. But alas, the best I could do was mourn.
I placed him on my back and I felt his cooling blood start to soak into my pelt. I marched up and out of my confinement, the swirl of wind created blades right behind me. I noticed that the air was completely dead throughout the castle area, and none of the decorative cloth moved. What I saw before me, made my controlled rage grow to unfathomable depths: an entire army of those bug things, terrorizing those trying to fight. The shrapnel launched in a single file above me, slicing all that it crossed in two. I felt a mass of something approaching me on my left and without even looking, the wire of blades took to it. I marched onward, leaving the flying bits to attack. I noted six familiar ponies being dragged into the building by a mob. I knew where they were heading.
At this point, the bleeding had stopped, and my back was soaked in the coldness of air-exposed blood, and was starting to cake over. Jake’s body was starting to become more stiff and cold as well.
The bugs stopped before a large doorway, and I sent forth a shockwave of compressed air. The wave rushed down the hall, having enough force to tear bits of concrete out of the walls. The bugs didn’t have enough time to react before it hit, working them deep into the door. The wooden door was dyed green as it opened, spraying a heavy rain on the room within.
The six lay unconscious on the floor due to the pressure that failed to push them along. I walked past, and into the blood soaked masses that was still within the room. I stared at the thing before me that was shocked by my entrance. The horrid screams like that of a bunny, burning alive, could be heard from the remaining bugs that were outside, fleeing now from the metal that chased them, and would continue to chase them.
“And who are you?” the obvious queen of this swarm demanded.
“Your demise you, fucking bitch.” I know, cliché. But my point was driven across, literally. Before it even had a chance to respond, every spear within the room that was abandoned by the guards, pierced it, leaving it to gasp, and look at its quickly bloodying self. It gave a single shudder before becoming limp, suspended only by the dozens of shafts that ran it through.
A cocoon suspended in the air was ripped apart, and Celestia fell to the ground, crumpled from the sudden fall. I went to her, forcing her up only to knock her down again with a single blow to the face. She got up on her own this time and prepared for a fight, only to stop as she noticed the tears that was finally breaking free of my face. Drip by drip, the salty water formed small, clear islands within the sea of green.
Turning to Shining Armor, who had had a splendid view of my red back, I lunged at him, covering the distance in under a second, I punched him against the wall. I began to shout, rage mixed with deep sorrow evident within my voice, “How could you! I thought I could trust you! But because of you… Because of you…” My rage melted as the true realization of what was on my back hit me, my dead son. I heard a gasp from a roughed up Cadance as she spotted what had turned my back red. My voice shriveled to almost nothing as I whispered the words I feared saying, “Because of you, my son is dead.”
The cries of the bugs outside faded, the metal no longer chasing them. Instead, only a few, lonely drones of buzzing could be heard, as even that, faded away. The air once again started to circulate, and a new noise became dominant, sobs. Investigation quickly brought the already focused attention, onto the one who had that focus. I was on the floor, soaking green onto my chest. Nothing else made a noise and the mournful, broken man wept.
That’s right, broken. I had lost the most precious thing in my life, and in the same way I had lost the first: behind something as I watched them die before me, unable to do anything about it. It is a pitiful, despair ridden feeling that crushed me.
Several sets of splashing-hoof steps echoed through the chamber, becoming the dominant sound. They stopped and gasps could be heard from those who entered, as they stopped to stare at the spear-ridden thing, and the soft sobs were once again heard. Reluctantly, the attention of those who entered, was draw the pegasus who was surrounded by a grieving mob. They neared, only to learn who it was.
I continued to cry. I didn’t want to be in here, I didn’t want my son dead, I didn’t want to live. I drew once of the spears from the queen bug’s body using wind. It climbed high above the sight of anyone within the room, and made its way directly over my own head. I gave it force as it dropped, making it fall faster. Somepony noticed it and called out, “Stop!”
That voice was familiar. That voice resonated within my head, despite the many who had tried to speak earlier. The spear stopped, inches from ending my life, and the ponies surrounding me fell back. The one who called out came up to me, and lifted my head, knocking the weapon away, “White Wind, why the hell did you try to kill yourself.”
I looked deep into the cyan pony’s eyes before I answered, “Because I have nothing to live for, Jake is dead.” The attention of Rainbow Dash flickered quickly from me, to Jake’s body, and back to me.
“You have me, don’t you? Now stop being a baby and get up!”
Her words were harsh, but they were accurate. However, most of the ponies turned against her, “Rainbow Dash, let him grieve,” Cadance chimed softly.
“No, she is right,” I stated as I got up, wiped the tears off my face only to get green all over it, and forced a smile. “I’m going home to rest. I feel so tired. Tomorrow I want to see Cadance and Shining wed. Only then, will I bury my son and plant a rose bush over his grave, just like I did for his mother. I expect to see this wedding tomorrow, got it?” I looked at Shining and Cadance, who both nodded, “Good, now if you will excuse me, I have a nice cloud bed that I need to use.”
I somberly flew through the window, and to the approaching rectangular prism of a cloud. I went in, not caring that Rainbow Dash had followed me in. Going to the bedroom that I had built, I took Jake off my back, and tucked him into my bed. Kissing his forehead, and whispering goodbye, I walked past the cyan pony standing in the doorway, and to the couch displayed in the open area. Shudders ran through me as I tried to sleep, only to be stopped as a warm body-mass cuddled against me and wrapped me in a wing.
The next day I awoke to find a sandwich in front of me. I gratefully ate the sandwich, and despite my heavy feeling body, I got up and bathed. I stood under the water, forcing myself to think of things other than my son, and failing quite miserably. I got out, now clean of all the blood that had crusted over on me, and left, not looking at the room were Jake lay.
The wedding was a happy one, and despite the blood bath the day before, the capital was free of blood. Celestia must have one hell of a cleanup crew if she could clear it all in under a night. I was celebrated as a hero, but most of the facts hidden from the public. Afterwards, I went home, cleaned my son’s stiff body, and went to sleep, once again comforted by Rainbow Dash.
I buried my son the next day within the courtyard of Celestia’s castle, with her permission of course. Only a small handful of ponies showed up: Luna, Celestia, Shining, Cadance, Twilight, Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie, Rainbow, Fluttershy, and a few more I didn’t know. Birds chirped a mournful tune thanks to Fluttershy, and I could be heard suppressing sobs. True to my word, however, I had acquired and planted a rosebush over him.
I know live my life over Ponyville, depressed. The only thing that has kept me from killing myself, is Rainbow Dash. It took me a year to even get back on my feet and occupy my time. In about two years I had finished building my house to the masterwork. It no longer was a cube, but an unrecognizable shape that flowed seamlessly together. I have paid off all the debts I owed as well, thanks to Celestia’s gift/condolence for saving the capital, and the subsequent reason for why I did it. By the third year, I had put myself back together enough, with Rainbow’s help of course, to start working again and earn some bit of my own. Sometime within the fourth year, Rainbow Dash gave birth to a white coated, rainbow mane daughter, whom we named Flashing Streak, on account of a birthmark hidden under her fur. I stopped counting the years after that, and we lived happily. It is Flashing Streak’s sixth birthday, and ironically, the day of Jake’s death.