Death Be Not Proud

by ShinigamiDad

Blue Belle

Twilight appeared in the “Waiting Room,” and scanned side to side, up and down, looking for any trace of Blue Belle. She furrowed her brow and snorted in frustration.

“Great! Day One on the job, and I lose my first spirit!” she said under her breath.

She took a deep breath and closed her eyes, concentrating on Blue Belle’s appearance, and the feel of her presence. She called out,
“Blue Belle! Where are you? It’s OK--you don’t have to hide!”

Suddenly a voice caught Twilight by surprise: “I wasn’t hiding. I’ve been here--well, somewhere--the whole time. I thought I was alone!”

Twilight opened her eyes and looked to her left. Roughly a yard away stood an old, pale-blue mare, about 80-years-old.

“I’m sorry,” Twilight apologized, “this is all kind of new to me!”

Blue Belle looked at her sympathetically: “It’s fine, dear. But can you tell me what happened? Where are we?”

Twilight waved her right hoof in a long arc, from right to left: “This is the Harbinger’s “Waiting Room.” This is where the spirits of ponies who have passed away stay briefly until the Harbinger guides them on beyond this world.”

Blue Belle furrowed her brow: “So, you’re saying I died? The last thing I remember was falling asleep.”

Twilight nodded: “Yes. You died in your sleep about three nights ago.”

“Have I been here the whole time since? I can’t really tell how much time has passed.”

“No--your unconscious spirit was just waiting in your cottage. We found it had settled in an old quilt.”

Blue Belle tipped her head to the side: “Quilt? Ah--you mean the one that my grandmother made. I guess it makes sense that I would end up there--I loved that quilt, and my grandmother. Will I see her now?”

Twilight frowned: “I--I don’t know. I don’t think anypony really knows what happens once our spirits leave this world. I don’t know your fate--that will be up to you to discover.”

Tears welled in Blue Belle’s large, slate-gray eyes: “Can I go back to say goodbye, or at least see my daughter--see that she’s OK?”

Twilight shook her head sadly: “No, I’m afraid that once you’ve left Equestria there’s no going back. I’m sure your daughter will be fine. Your cottage was cleared-out, and the quilt folded on the rocking chair. Clearly somepony had taken care with you and your things.”

Blue Belle sighed and nodded, wiping away a tear: “I’m sure you’re right. Maybe she’ll dream of me, and remember how much I loved her.”

Twilight smiled and put a foreleg across the old mare’s shoulders turning her slightly to the right: “I think I know somepony who can help with that!”

Blue Belle squinted slightly as though focusing on something unseen in the distance, then took a few tentative steps forward. She looked back over her shoulder to see Twilight, now standing in deep shadow, pointing onward.

Twilight gave a final wave, and watched as Blue Belle simply slipped through the world’s boundary, and vanished like a thread of smoke escaping through a chink in a cottage roof.

---

Twilight returned to the dark, quiet cottage, and found Reaper dozing in Blue Belle’s rocking chair. She looked at his face, and watched his eyes darting beneath his closed lids, as his chest rose and fell rapidly. She reached out and shook him gently.

“Wha-what happened? I’m not dead!” Reaper blurted out as he snapped awake and fought to focus on Twilight’s shadowy face.

Twilight took a step back in alarm and brought forth a pale violet glow from the tip of her horn: “No, you’re not dead! I guess you were sleeping, and probably dreaming.”

Reaper shook his head to clear out the disorientation, and ran a hoof across his eyes and down his muzzle: “So it would seem. I really don’t like dreaming!”

Twilight smiled: “Maybe you could get Luna’s help with that--it’s kind of her specialty!”

Reaper bit his lip and looked away: “I think she’s seen about all she needs to see of my dreams!”

“What do you mean?”

“Do you remember just before you touched my, er, the sword?”

“Yes.”

“Luna and I were at a spa, and the pony attending to me, shall we say, was administering an extra-special treatment.”

Twilight tipped her head sideways, puzzled: “Extra-special?”

Reaper pointed between his legs.

Twilight put a hoof to her mouth and blushed: “Oh!”

Reaper nodded: “And as I was approaching the, um, “end of the treatment,” as it were, I was suddenly overtaken by my millennia-old death vision.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow: “That must have been distracting!”

“In the extreme! And, as a bonus, Luna was able to perceive the vision just as clearly as any other pony’s dream.”

“Luna was with you?!”

“The spa was her idea.”

Twilight shook her head and grinned: “Of course it was.”

Reaper nodded: “It’s the only time she’s perceived my dreams.”

“Weird. Maybe she knows you were dreaming this time, too? Maybe she just had to “break through” once?”

Reaper shrugged: “Maybe. I guess I can ask her when we get back to the castle. But first: how did your first time resolving a spirit go?”

Twilight furrowed her brow: “OK, I think. I was able to guide Blue Belle on beyond the world--well, once I figured out where she was!”

Reaper grinned: “Yeah, the “Waiting Room” does take some getting used to!”

“I’m just concerned that I wasn't able to answer her final questions. There are so many questions that I can’t answer!” Twilight replied.

Reaper smiled: “You mean like “where am I going?” “What happens next?” “Will I meet so-and-so?””

Twilight nodded: “I hate not having answers to things! I’ve spent my whole life trying to answer as many questions as I can!”

“Get used to it, kiddo--nopony really knows the answers to those questions. That’s the realm of philosophy and religion, which is ironic, since no theologian or philosopher has ever been anywhere near the source of these questions, or their answers (if any)!”

Twilight frowned: “Have you never wondered what happens next and whatnot? I mean, you’ve spent thousands of years as close as anypony to the answers. Have you never tried to figure it out?”

Reaper shook his head: “Nope. And if you’re smart (which you are), neither will you. You are now a servant of timeless, eternal Fate and Entropy, and no answer you might ever find would make sense to your time-and-space-limited mind.”

He stood and headed toward the door: “Even I, after thousands of years of being unclouded by mortal concerns, only have the dimmest vision of the shape of things.”

Twilight followed Reaper out the door and secured it: “But I, as one of them, am concerned about the beings who live here. You came from another place. Maybe as the first Harbinger genuinely of Equestria, I can see things from a perspective you can’t.”

Reaper silently recalled his earlier conversation with Luna: “Believe me, Princess, it’s better if you don’t.”

Twilight furrowed her brow, but held her tongue.