//------------------------------// // Chapter 4: Die Again // Story: The Crossroads // by Ex-Nihilos //------------------------------// Chapter 4: Die Again Memphis was back to sitting against the tree strumming on his guitar again while Lewdy was still trying to recover from laughing. It didn’t help that every time he looked at the greasy pony or Captain Raeg he nearly burst into fits of violent laughter again. This was the norm for the two of them in their three years with little interaction from the outside world besides a short conversation between Memphis and Lyra Heartstrings on how he was able to play the guitar with merely the edge of his hooves, she promptly forgot about his existence, one of the only times Memphis was saddened during his stay at the Crossroads. He never did give a straight answer as neither were very open in mentioning they were dead. Same couldn’t be said to new arrivals, the novelty of death hadn’t worn off yet. Yet somehow one of them in their wandering had attracted the attention on none other than Twilight Sparkle. It was one thing to get her attention, but to bring her back and get her to see all of them? This was a miracle. Twilight followed the odd blue unicorn back to the carriage crossing more out of curiosity than any real belief in the her story; it wasn’t very far away and the trip was short. By the time the station was in sight, Twilight was caught up as far as Abigail could bring her, and had a few bits of information on the human’s world.  She seemed particularly interested in space travel, though Abigail had likely played a part in that, having lead the conversation in that direction by habit. Like the mare had said, there were indeed more ponies, but strange looking ponies always frequented this part of town. There were six other ponies there, though it was a little more animated than the usual groups of somber looking ponies. There was the guitar playing one and his friend that always seemed to be there, but a few others had shown up. There was a yellow earth pony with a green mane wearing a monocle, a rather portly grey earth pony that seemed to be covered in grease, a brown unicorn with a black mane, and then there was... Twilight stared at the last one, the pony was a massive yellow pegasus with a red mane and tail, covered head to hoof in golden yellow guardspony armor. He was sitting a little ways away from the others and looking rather subdued. She recognised him immediately. “Captain Imperious, is that you?” she asked. The guardspony turned his head and after a moment she saw recognition cross his face. He stood up and trotted over to where she and the blue unicorn stood. “Twilight Sparkle?” he said. “Right, right, you live here.” Twilight looked at him strangely. This wasn’t like the guardspony she remembered, he wasn’t nearly angry enough. “What brings you to Ponyville?” she asked. Suddenly she perked up. “If you’re back does that mean the campaign in the northlands is over? And if you’re here that must mean Patriarch and Heavy Hoofed are here! Where are they?” Raeg looked at the unicorn practically hopping with excitement. “They’re...” he trailed off as a memory drudged itself up, unbidden. A unicorn. A beam of boiling hate lanced from his horn, searing feathers and fur from gryphons. Dozens were incinerated before a barrage of arrows brought the furious unicorn down. Unable to contain the unstable magical energy anymore his body erupted, bathing countless more in his corrosive fury. “They’re not...” An earth pony. From his mouth poured catechisms of hate that turned away weapons and softened blows like no armor could hope to. His golden icon of Celestia was stained red with blood as he used it to brutally maul any that dared approach. He was dragged down in a furious dogpile from which none arose. Raeg shook his head to scatter the images. “They’re dead.” he said flatly. Twilight’s face fell. “What?” “They’re dead. Along with the rest of the 501st. Everypony’s dead.” Twilight couldn’t think of anything to say. Well, maybe one thing. “But you lived?” Raeg snorted. “Apparently not. Apparently your town is some kind of purgatory. Congratulations. Now I’m stuck here with these jackasses.” he said, gesturing to the assortment of ponies standing about the crossing. Twilight turned to the blue unicorn to her side. “Well I guess you really aren’t crazy after all.” The unicorn merely shrugged in response. “I lost the wrench you gave me in the battle. Sorry.” Twilight turned back to look at Raeg. “Oh, that’s... that’s alright. I’m so sorry about your men.” The pegasus shrugged and spoke with an eloquence she had never heard from him. “It was our fate. We lived for war, we died for peace. Equestria is safe and now they can rest.” Lucky Money joined the group of three ponies, which included a purple unicorn he hadn’t seen appear, Abigail, and Captain ‘eat your face’. “‘ello again Abagail didn’t see you run off after the other pony bumped me... ‘ello, who is this?” Lucky saw the purple pony next to Abigail, she had a coat of purple fur and black hair with purple streaks. She was a unicorn and had some spark looking things for a cutie mark. “Welcome miss, to our little state of Limbo. I assume the captain here ‘as already introduced ya to the current state of affairs? Twilight looked at the yellow pony and became more confused. “Limbo? Are you telling me you’re dead like the captain and this pony?” She gestured to the Raeg and Abigail, respectively. Lucky kept his smile up, yet he felt odd about this new pony. She looked and felt alive compared to himself and the others. It was also confusing that she didn’t put herself into the ‘dead’ category.   “Well... aye, but aren’t ya dead too? If ye were alive that’d mean...” Lucky trailed off as he realized he was talking to a living pony... his monocle fell off its perch. Twilight shook her head, still confused but starting to get the idea. “Well yes of course I’m alive, I was walking along the road when I met this pony,” she turned to the blue unicorn. “Abigail was it?” Lucky didn’t give her the chance to hear an answer. “Oh thank ye lass! Without ya I would be stuck ‘ere with this lot! Now I can get out of this ‘ole!”  Lewdy and Memphis were both up on their hooves immediately at the sound of her voice. They watched in awe as Captain Raeg spoke to her.  The two seemed to know one another, which would only help Twilight help them. “No... damn way,” Memphis muttered, his brown eyes showing the clear surprise at this turn of events. “How the hell did you get one of the manes to see you?!” Lewdy shouted, surging forward next to Lucky Money. “For the love of God, Celestia, and Satan pay no attention to this man- pony- thing! BRING US FOOD! I haven’t had actual food in THREE YEARS. No wait, scratch that! Get Pinkie Pie here!” “Lewdy that idea isn’t going to-” Memphis cautioned but was cut off. “Shut it! This is our first interaction with the living in months!” Lewdy shouted, the excitement in his teal eyes bordering on manic. “Now everypony hold on a moment!” the lavender unicorn cried out. “Let me get this straight. You’re... all ghosts? As in all you ponies... died and are haunting this place? Well how can I see you? I mean that isn’t possible. That shouldn’t be possible!” Lewdy’s eye twitched as his head spun towards Abigail and then to Raeg, “You dipshits told her we were dead?! Damn it can no one keep a tiny little secret like being dead.... well a secret!?” The pony’s ability to form words fled his mind, leaving him sputtering out grumbles, growls, and curses. Memphis took this moment to shove Lewdy out of the way, “Yes Ms. Sparkle it’s true. The ponies here are all dead. Suffice to say we’re here in Limbo, limbo bein’ this old carriage crossin’.” “THIS SUCKS!” Lewdy suddenly screamed and started smashing his head against the Poplar tree. Memphis ignored the fool and watched to see what Twilight would say. The lavender unicorn seemed bewildered, looking around at them. She took an extra long moment to furtively look at the scar in between Lucky Money’s eyes before moving on. “But I know you! You’re that pony that’s always sitting here playing that guitar. You’ve been here for over a year now, you and that other pony who’s always pacing around.” “Three years to be exact Ms. Sparkle, we’ve been dead for three years waitin’ to be judged. Think carefully, did you see us leave at any time? We were always here and out of the way?” “Yes but I didn’t think much of it...” the Librarian returned. “Exactly, that’s the same for every pony. I’m just glad somepony finally got your attention to our plight but I think it best we keep this to ourselves for the time being. I’m not sure what would happen if everypony here realized they had a regular limbo going on here.” “I... see what you mean,” Twilight said, “but how do I help you? I mean if you’re all dead shouldn’t you be moving on instead of waiting here?” “We would if we could! No scratch that, others would if they could!” Lewdy shouted. Turning around he jutted a hoof towards Twilight, “Look, if you want to help us out here then get Pinkie Pie to come here and invite us to a Welcome to Ponyville Party. We just need a clear invitation to go and we can LEAVE.” Lewdy pleaded with her. “Lewdy that isn’t going to work.” Memphis said sadly. “Shut up,” the green pony harshly whispered, “I’m not about to resign myself to going to Hell just yet.” Turning back to Twilight he thought quickly, “Look if you help us out Twilight we’ll... I don’t know we’ll give you the secret to Life if you want, say hi to a long dead relative, or maybe put in a good word to Starswirl the Bearded for you! We just need Pinkie Pie to say the words!” “What? I don’t understand, what does this have to do with Pinkie Pie? What am I even doing talking to a bunch of ghosts? Or supposed ghosts. Or Limbo dwellers. I don’t even know what to call you all! This shouldn’t be possible!” the lavender unicorn frantically said, trying reason out the current situation. “How did you all even get here?!” she cried out.         Raeg glanced around the crossing.         “I couldn’t tell you. I was supposed to go... somewhere else. This-” his eyes widened. “This is a trick!” he yelled. “This isn’t really happening! You bastard, come out where I can see you!” he yelled to the sky.         The other ponies looked at him strangely.         “Captain? Are you alright?” Twilight asked         “Yeah, can you shout any louder there, crazy?” Lewdy asked.         Raeg whirled on him. “It’s probably you, isn’t it? You and your snarkiness, it’s fucking you! I know it is!”         Lewdy backed away from the enraged pegasus. “Whoa there, boyo, we’re all friends here, eh?”         “Hey, take it easy there, Cap’n.” Memphis said. “ah get that bein’ dead sucks, but taking it out on Lewdy won’t help you. It’ll be funny as hell, but it won’t help.”         Raeg turned to him next. “Or you! Just sitting there with your fucking guitar! It could be you too! It could be any of you! I’m not gonna fall for it, do you hear me you fucking freak? I’ll just kill you all until I figure out which one it is!”         Raeg grabbed hold of Lewdy and, with a beat from his massive wings, launched them both into the air.         “Captain, wait!” he heard Twilight yell. As the two started to fade, Raeg tucked in his wings and sent them both hurtling towards the ground, with Lewdy positioned to take the armored pegasus’ full weight.          “What the fuck are you doing?!” he screamed over the wind.         “Die again!” Raeg yelled. The two crashed into the ground at near terminal velocity, Raeg crushing the hapless pony into what felt like nothing.         “Oh my gosh!” Twilight exclaimed, horrified. “What did you do?!”          “FFFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUU-” came a cry from the poplar tree, drawing the attention of her and Raeg.         Looking over, they saw Lewdy rolling on the ground in agony.         “FUCKING HELL! That hurt, you jackass!” he yelled. Twilight stared at him, shocked. “But... but the Captain just killed him!”         “I was right! It was you!” Raeg yelled, ignoring Twilight.         “I’m pretty sure that didn’t prove what you think it just did.” Memphis said while facehoofing.         “And what do you think I was trying to prove?” Raeg shot back.         “I’ve got no fucking clue.” he admitted. “But it does prove that he really was dead to begin with. Not sure if I mentioned it earlier, but if you die you just appear back here again.”         Raeg growled. “Well that’s fucking useless then.”         “YOU SON OF A BITCH! I’LL END YOU!” Lewdy screamed as he tackled Raeg, attempting to bite his ears off. “Just you wait. Haku’ll get you if it’s the last thing Haku does!” Haku screamed to himself, completely ignoring the scene going on within his group. “Oh ho ho... Haku almost has you- come back here!” Haku’s eyes moved side to side as fast as they could, searching for an apparently unseen enemy, even crossing in an awkward position.. “Haha! Haku got you!” Haku said victoriously, before letting out a sigh in relief. “And they said it was impossible to catch that little squiggly line in the corner of your eyes. Well, Haku showed them.” Deciding that he had enough fun to himself, Haku turned to his friends. “Ok guys, Haku zoned out for a while. What did Haku miss?” And then he saw... her. The purple unicorn. Haku couldn’t believe it. It was her. The one that he adored almost as much as himself. The best pony. Or at least one of them. And it seemed that... everyone was talking to her... well almost everyone, as there was a crater to the side with two ponies in it, beating each other to the death. Seeing this Haku mumbled to himself, “Yes, fight... FIGHT! Haku has everything and you have nothing.” Haku then turned his attention back to Twilight. Silently walking behind her, he put a hoof on her shoulder. “Excuse Haku, miss,” Haku said very calmly, gaining the purple unicorn’s attention. “Yes, hello. Are you a ghost too? One of the ones who don’t exist because it isn’t possible?” Twilight asked with a sarcastic tone. Haku nodded. “Why yes, yes Haku is. Haku just couldn’t help but notice that you’re, well... Twilight Sparkle. Is that correct?” Twilight was silent for a moment. How did this pony know her? No, scratch that, how did this ghost know her? “Haku takes your silence as a yes,” Haku said before grabbing her hoof in his and shaking her violently. “Oh happy day indeed!” Haku shouted. “Oh, Haku was cool with dying, but meeting with Twilight Sparkle? Oh Twilight, Haku must say, you are simply best pony.” Haku tried to talk more, but found a hoof stuffed into his mouth, causing his eyes to bulge out.         Lucky regained his composure after being shoved aside... again. He looked back to the purple unicorn, then watched the fighting ponies inside the crater. He sighed and shook his head, then turned back to the purple pony once more.         “I am sorry for that sudden outburst miss Twilight... although ya may not believe it, becoming dead has quite the negative effect on one's thought process. I don’t think I fully introduced myself; the name is Lucky Money, used to be Dominique O’Reiley where I came from, but it seems smaller names work better here.” Lucky stuck out a hoof with his trademark smile; it had a high rate of working.         Twilight looked at the hoof and sighed, might as well keep the good manners going if they would ward away more ridiculous fighting. “Twilight Sparkle is my full name, nice to meet you Lucky... although that still doesn’t answer the question of how you got here.” Twilight took his hoof in hers and politely shook it.         “A’ yes, well there be a story for ye... when it comes to arriving here, I pretty much did the equivalent of get kicked out of death’s limousine. The others I have seen fall out of the sky, or rise out of sludge, we all arrived like we left our lives,” Lucky gestured to his round scar, “I doubt you would know what a ‘rifle’ is, but it seems I left my life in a bang.”         Twilight didn’t understand what a ‘rifle’ was, but she got the idea that it was probably a weapon. “Wait, so you were killed? By another pony? That’s horrible!” Twilight couldn’t imagine somepony hurting another like that... especially to the point of killing them.         “Well miss Twilight... I’m not exactly from here... wow this is awkward. Okay lass here’s what I’m gonna say right now; yes I was killed, happens a lot where I am from and it is usually for money. Yes it is a tragic event but moving on is a lot better than sitting and weeping... for your other question, though, I’ll just come out and say I’m not a pony, or at least I didn’t use to be. For some reason death decided to leave me here, but the world I come from is filled with ‘Humans’... ponies aren’t exactly sentient.”         Twilight was confused, this left her in an even worse state than before he had stepped in. A ‘hew-man’? And why did he talk of death so nonchalantly? Abigail was thankful for Dominique talking to Twilight.  It let her surreptitiously remove her hoof from Haku’s mouth.  While it was true that Twilight’s adventures were popular fare for TV viewership in their world, it didn’t seem like telling her that (or letting her know exactly how obsessed some people could get) was a good plan.  Preferably, they would never have to bring the subject up, at least, not for a long while, and it could be... altered to be less weird than a work of pure fiction designed for little girls that teenaged boys liked.  Of course, she liked the show too, but that was different. Lucky gave Twilight a somewhat concise description of his death which led to a culture clash of sorts.  These ponies were quite the pacifists from what Abigail could remember, and murder clearly went well past Twilight’s limit. “It’s like I was starting to tell you on the way here, we all, or well, not the unhappy pegasus apparently, come from another world.  In that world we are the only sapient species, at least as far as we know.  Ours is also nowhere near as ideal as yours.  People struggle with each other over many different things, most of which are not worth the fighting in the first place.  On the other hand, there are also genuinely good people in our world whose goodness shines more brightly for the dark. “Of course, that is neither here nor there.  As much as I would love to discuss the differences in our worlds with you, as well as learn how to use the magic my horn suggests I should be able to do, we do have slightly more immediate concerns.”  By this point, Abigail had recovered from her doldrums and had put on a small smile.  “None of us want to spend forever trapped in the same few meters of land, watching everyone else go about their lives in happiness while we sink into the landscape.  I know the idea of it terrifies me, and I haven’t been here nearly as long as Lewdy or Memphis.” Abigail realized she’d been rambling for a bit, and that letting Twilight speak and think was probably a good idea.  The purple mare stroked her chin with her hoof, contemplating for a moment or seven.  After the brief silence she said, “I do want to help you, but I don’t exactly know what to do.  Maybe if I knew why you needed Pinkie to invite you to a party.  Does it have to be her?  Or can anyone invite you out?  Aaauuugh,” Twilight half groaned and half cried, “Look, do you know any more about your situation than that you’ve died and appeared here and that invitations can let you leave?” “Well,” said Memphis, “the spirit of Death comes to claim us eventually.  Not exactly sure what makes her come to collect us at a specific time.  Other times, she’ll boot some quarrelsome members of our limbo community to purgatory, which is supposedly a very bad place to end up.  Even worse than Tartarus, if you can imagine.” Twilight was still at a loss for information.  Maybe she could get more information by running tests on the ghost ponies.  She should also probably ask Princess Celestia about it, since her equipment was in her library anyway.  While she believed the strange ponies more now that she found she knew one of them, even if he was... changed from the somewhat less violent pegasus that had guarded her in Canterlot, she didn’t exactly want to free a bunch of possibly evil ponies on Ponyville. “I want to help you,” said Twilight, “so I’m going to go back to get some equipment so that I can run some tests.  I’ll be back in twenty minutes, thirty at most.  OK?” Then all hell broke loose.