//------------------------------// // Chapter 36: A Father's Duty // Story: This Bright Blazing Future // by Dynasty-Kaine //------------------------------// Spitfire went to stop the forest green stallion, but it was too late as the Rainmaker, his guitar, began to hum with a magic that looked warm to the touch. The room was instantly surrounded in blackness as he began to play. All that you could see was Dash in her bed, Sig in his chair and the two other mares in the room. A room which seemed to have become the empty space of purgatory. Guitar notes rang out in the empty space but that wasn't all, other instruments began resounding through the darkness. "Wh-What's going on?" Spitfire said afraid of the answer. "He's taking it back for Dash, now quiet." the princess commanded. "Honor him here." "But where are the other instrument sounds coming from?" "His heart, his mind, his soul." Drums, guitars, and other string instruments of varying tone all seemed to come alive in Sig's mind as his heart began to pour out. Spitfire could only watch in awe at what was happening before her, she felt immobilized by the atmosphere surrounding them now. He began to nod his head and rock back and forth as music, loud as a full concert, began to echo all around them. She turned for a moment to see Celestia looking slightly behind Signature, a devilish scowl on her face. "Here he is mother, my chosen." She heard Celestia mutter quietly. She was drawn back to Sig as he began to sing, his voice seemed to be filled with youth as an aura enveloped his body gently. It was faint but it was there. "With what little life and light there is left in me, please, give it to her." Sig spoke aloud before the lyrics came to. "Let her take this life back!" Her love reigns down on me, As easy as the breeze, I listen to her breathing, It sounds like waves on the sea, I was thinking all about her, Burning with rage and desire, We were spinning into darkness, and the earth was on fire, She could take it back, She might take it back, Some day, So I spied on her, I've lied to her, I make promises I cannot keep, I hear her laughter rising, Rising from the deep, I make her prove her love for me, I take all that I can take, I push her to the limit to see if she will break, She might take it back, She could take it back, Some day, It was here that the sounds dropped down and the sounds of angelic female voices gently caressed the atmosphere about them. Sig had not stopped playing, he just dropped tempo for a moment. His aura had changed from a white fog color to green, and the aura had grown in size. Something almost felt lifelike about his magical aura. Wait, was this really magical energies? No, in her heart she knew it was Signature Sandwich's life energy being poured into this one moment. Tears broke away from her eyes and she didn't wipe them away as Sig brought the neck of his guitar high as it screamed out in a high pitched note. He had kicked back in his chair as the note hit him deep down it seemed. That one part of the song seemed to echo out across the very ages themselves. This was it, this was a father's duty to his child. To give everything they could for them. Now I have seen the warnings, Screaming from all sides, It's easy to ignore them, Cel-estia knows I've tried, Now all of this temptation, You know it turned my faith around, Till I couldn't see the danger, Or hear the rising tide, She can take it back, She will take it back, Some day, She can take it back, She will take it back, Some day, She can take it back, She will take it back, To-day... He continued to strum his guitar, his energy seeming to leave him as the song came to a slow and quiet ending. As the last note faded away, he let out one last sigh as every guitar string on his guitar broke, and he faded away. The stallion wasn't breathing anymore and Spitfire rushed over to him at this point. She checked for a pulse to no avail, and she could tell Celestia was trying to tell her something. Trying to calm her down, but it was no use to her now. Dash was dead and now Sig's last gambit had failed too! "No dammit, not you too Sig, I can't lose both of you!" She shouted tears streaming out of her eyes now. A loud gasp for breath caught her entirely off guard only about five minutes later. She turned and they were in the hospital again, Dash was sitting bolt upright gasping for breath. Rainbow had returned to life. _______________________________________________________________________________________ "D-Dash, is that you?" Spitfire asked cautiously. "Spitfire?" She answered hoarsely. "Am I alive again?" She didn't answer she just leaped at the cyan mare and wrapped her up in a tight embrace. "Ouch, easy there!" the younger pegasus replied with a laugh. "Yeah I'm alive again alright, but... How is it possible?" "Look to the chair that your love is blocking you from now with her hug, and you will surely see how you live Rainbow Dash." Celestia said a tear in her eye and a smile on her face. She turned and looked over the golden mare's shoulder to see what she knew in her heart would be there. Signature Sandwich, her father, lay motionless in the chair still gripping his now broken guitar. She knew she had seen him before she awoke in her body again. The moment he had crossed over he threw her off towards her body and had said, "This one's on the house kiddo, till we meet again!" She began to cry very lightly at this. He gave his life to give his daughter the second chance that was in many ways unobtainable. He had broken a law of existence, for her. Mortalitas wouldn't be happy in the slightest at his victory... Or would she? "Now Dash, what will you do with this life given to you?" Celestia inquired. "I don't know, but I can't let his sacrifice for me be in vain." She answered softly her voice not fully recovered. "Maybe I should pick up something to do that isn't based on my talent for once? Maybe I can still mend the relationship with a mare I still love as well?" "Dash I..." Spitfire said moving away and suddenly realizing her position in all of this from before the coma. "Heh, you're hesitating?" Rainbow chuckled lightly. "That's cute, but as I tried to tell you when I was falling with you in my arms. I'm sure we can work things out, but I swear... Don't you ever do that to me again Spits! It killed me to have to bear it. Literally." She began to sniffle and cry again. Her emotions were much less restrained since Purgatory Station. She felt the pain from the loss of her adoptive father, the love broken by Spitfires cheating, the joy of seeing her parents and Applejack again, and the utter exhilaration at being alive again. "Dash I must ask before I act, but may I move your father's body to a more quiet place for the time being?" Celestia suggested properly. "You and Spitfire have some talking to do I'm sure, and I would like to prepare things for the stallions funeral... If you wouldn't mind that is?" The newly revived cyan pegasus could easily tell that the princess was grieving for the loss of Signature Sandwich as much as she would. Almost like a mother that lost their child, or more accurately someone who just lost the one they loved most in the world. She seemed more delicate than any moment the rainbow maned mare had known the princess. "Of course Celestia, after all his spirit once almost became one with yours." Dash revealed what she knew. The princess went wide eyed in shock, "You know that much, the memories from Purgatory followed you home somehow. Didn't they?" "They did." She answered in a level tone. "Now go and grieve the soul you love the most." "It was your birth father's loud mouth wasn't it?" Celestia answered narrowing her eyes. "The one and only loud mouth Princess, now I think you have more important matters to attend to." Dash said nodding her head toward her father. The princess seemed to come back to and nodded her head moving to take the stallion into her arms. The brilliant mare seemed to also pay close attention to sitting his guitar at the foot of Dash's bed. The cyan mare knew this was in no way an accident either, as the princess exited the room in silence. Me, a guitarist? That's a rather tempting thought actually... "Uhm... So Dash, what are we gonna do next?" Spitfire broke into her thoughts. "Oh, well I guess we should start over from the beginning." She answered with a smile. "Hmm my body feels a bit heavier. Less muscular too. Ah well, this is healthy for me and I'm sure Twilight would agree. Still Spits, it's much too early for me to think of getting a simple discharge from the hospital. So you may have to wait a while for the relationship restart hun." "I-I think I can do that for you Dash." the golden pegasus answered solemnly. "Your father showed his true strength today, and I'll never be more grateful than I am now... To have you back. He showed me what it means to really change something..." "He just did his duty, and he did it with no regrets in his heart." the mare said a tear in her eye. "So I'll pay it back by living every day to the best of my ability." A sigh of death that brought on a gasp of life... This was Sig's legacy.