Chapter 55: Grieving
Author's note: the last chapter had a lot of messed up stuff I know. Unfortunately things aren't going to get any better for a few chapters (I'll say now things are going to get a little worse), but I ask that you trust me. It's all happening for a reason. FYI I hate really sad endings.
September 15, 1005,
I had faced down massive beasts, obsessed cultists, a freaky temple, and even a genocidal god, but those were things I could fight. This... I was helpless, and for the first time I was truly scared for my own life. I didn't want to die, especially not like that. Killed by some disease. It was that damn cat, the one that bit me on the way through the jungle.
I held Jynx as she cried on my chest. My mind was going in a million different directions at once trying to think of a solution, but nothing came. I was going to die and there was nothing I could do about it.
“Hi daddy.” Razor waved at me from the foot of the bed.
I looked at my son and gave him a smile. My thoughts went to Midnight and Razor growing up without a father, and leaving Jynx alone. I thought about all my friends, about Dash, Waya, Phoenix, Pinkie, Twilight, Luna, Tia...
“Tia,” I said, “We can ask Celestia for help.”
Jynx's crying slowed a little, “Do you think she can?”
“Of course, she's a goddess. I'll write her a quick letter and just get this cleared right up.” I replied.
I got out of the hospital bed and checked out. We quickly headed toward the library.
“I don't think we should tell anyone else about this just yet.” I said, “It wouldn't do any good for then to be worry about me. Why don't you take Razor home. Midnight's probably wondering where we are.” Jynx nodded her approval and turned toward the house.
I walked into the library to find Twilight cleaning up after everyone. She still looked very down about Pinkie.
“How ya doin', Twi.” I asked.
“I'm just upset.” She said, “I take it you know about Waya?”
“Yeah, he wanted one last fight before he left.” I said, “He beat me.”
“Really?” she said, “I guess he decided revenge wasn't worth losing a friend over.”
He's losing one anyway, I couldn't keep the thought from my head, “I need to get a letter to Tia pronto.”
“OK, writing utensils and paper are in the desk, and Spike's upstairs reading.” She said.
“Thanks Twi.” I said.
I grabbed what I needed and began writing.
Dear Princess Celestia,
First I ask that you keep the content of this letter confidential between yourself and Luna. I have received terrible news today. After passing out I was taken to the hospital where, upon waking, discovered I had contracted a disease from the southern rainforest. It's called Naosenza. It's a feline specific virus and so poses no threat to anyone else. Unfortunately it's going to kill me in a year. The doctors tell me there is no cure, but I was hoping you may know of anything that could at least extend my life. I don't want to leave my family alone.
Your friend and subject,
Shirotora
I finished the message, rolled it up, and sealed it. Taking it upstairs, I asked Spike to send the message. In a burst of magic the letter was sent on it's way. I waited for a reply and did in fact get one, but not how I thought I would. Instead of a letter, the world flashed and I felt like I was being pulled through a water hose. When the feeling stopped and my vision returned it was filled with indigo fur as I was pulled into a night deity's bear hug.
“Please, kitten, tell us this is some ill conceived jest.” Luna said, “It is not funny.”
“I'm sorry Lulu, but it's true.” I felt moist drops land on my head.
“Luna, prepare to your moon for tonight.” Said Celestia, “I will speak with him.”
The moon princess let me go and left quickly. Celestia sighed and sat down beside me.
“She's fond of you.” She said, “You're the only one who treats her like a true equal. She also sees you as one who knows what she went through. To have a dark entity take over your body and do terrible things with it. To her you ARE equals.”
“Is there anything you can do?” I asked, a touch of desperation seeping into my voice.
Tears fell down her face as she continued, “Another reason she's so upset is because she sees this as her fault. When she was gathering allies to fight against me, she tried recruiting the Ki-nali but they refused. In retaliation she created a disease that would only affect felines. That disease killed off the entire race and now you have it. What's worse is that she made it to be unstoppable.”
“So what you're saying is there's nothing I can do. I’m going to die and I can't even slow it down a little.” I said.
“I'm so sorry, Shiro.” said Celestia
I sat there for a moment thinking about what she was saying
“Bullshit,” I said, “Don't give me that crap.” She was shocked by my response, “You can move the fucking sun, but you can't get rid of some virus?”
“Shiro, I’m...”
“BULLSHIT!” I roared, “After everything I’ve done for you, you're just going to let me die! You're not even going to do a god damn thing to help me! Fuck you!”
“Shiro?” Luna came back in, “What's the matter?”
“What's the matter? Really? You have to ask?” I said, venom in my voice, “I'm going to die because a virus YOU made! That's what's that matter!”
I might as well have ripped her heart out and spat on it. Then again that would have probably hurt her less. Celestia displayed her disapproval of my choice of words with a very un-princess like, but very deserved hoof to my face. The force of the strike sent me to the ground.
The deity glared at me and said, “How dare you speak to my sister like that! You, least of all, have any right to speak of what she did.”
“Sister, please.” Luna interjected tears still in her eyes, “He is merely trying to cope. We know this is not how he truly feels.”
She walked over and laid down beside me. I just laid on my side where I landed, staring at nothing, crying silently.
“I don't want to die.” I said quietly.
“We know.” She said in a soft, comforting voice, “We will not pretend to know what you are going through, but we will promise that we will be here for you. Anything you need will be yours.”
“Thank you.” I said, “I'm sorry for what I said.”
“You need not apologize.” She said, “I wish I could do more for you. We'll send you back to your family if you're ready.”
“Before you do can you do two things for me?” I asked as I got to my paws, “Can you not tell anyone about this. I don't want them to worry. And second, when I’m... when I’m...” I couldn't bring myself to say it, “Could you just watch over my family?”
Luna gave me a warm, yet sad smile, “You do not even need to ask our friend.”
The same feeling as before came over me and I found myself outside my home. I hung my head and walked in to tell Jynx the bad news.
--- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- --- ---
December, 8, 1005,
The past months had been the worst of my life. Jynx and I cried ourselves to sleep every night the first week, but we slowly started to accept it. Celestia had sent some medicine that reduced the pain and coughing, but did nothing to slow the progress.
Pinkie was doing better at least. She was smiling and laughing again, but she still got a bit sad whenever she'd see parents playing with their foals in the park. She couldn't even go to Sweet Apple Acres for a month because seeing AJ with Autumn made her start tearing up. She was a bit better with Razor, but not much. I was just glad that she was almost back to her old self again.
With everything going to hell at once, it was like some sick ass hole is out there just making my life up for his own entertainment. At least I was starting to smile a little again.
Keeping it secret was a lot harder than I thought it would be. Dash knows something's wrong, but gave up on trying to get us to tell her (though I doubted she gave up trying to find out), Twilight had a suspicion, but no evidence, and I was pretty sure Pinkie knew. Don't ask me how, but whenever she looked at me she got a bit more depressed.
Tia invited us to have Razor's second birthday in the palace. She decided that if this was going to be the last birthday of his I got to see, she'd make sure it was special. Me, Jynx, Razor, Midnight, and all our friends were on the train to Canterlot. This was going to be the first party Pinkie had thrown since that day.
I looked over at Midnight near the front of the car having a conversation with Mephisto. According to my son , the dog tells some great jokes. Unfortunately, a lot of them are about me before I came here. I the black pooch glanced my way briefly before Midnight busted out in laughter.
“Hay, just cause I can't understand you doesn't mean I can't tell when you're talking about me.” I called out. Mephisto just responded with a grin.
“He said, “What are you going to do about it?”.” The young druid translated.
“Who is it again that makes those meat cookies you like so much?” I sad threateningly.
“Touche.” Midnight said for him, “Dad, can I let Halkir in?” He pointed out the window.
I looked out to see a figure running along side the train. Being a magical construct, he could run like that indefinitely. I envied him. I could run for a long time yeah, but not at a full sprint, especially now.
“OK, but he needs to go back outside before we get to Canterlot.” I said.
“Thanks, dad” The colt ran to the window, opened it and called out, “Halkir!”
With stunning precision, the timber wolf leaped through the window, landing in the center of the car. Midnight wasted no time wrapping his arboreal friend in a tight hug.
“You two are really close, huh?” I observed.
“Yeah, he's really cool.” said my colt, “I can get you one if you want. Oh, I know just the one. He's a fighter like you.”
“You know, you've yet to actually tell me what this binding does.” I said.
“Oh, it's really cool. It makes it so the wolf that's bound to you will obey any command you give it in any language you give it in, and it let's you talk to it.” he explained enthusiastically, “Oh, and they can talk to animals too, so you won't need me to translate for you. So you want one.”
“We'll see.” I said.
“OK.”he said and happily started chatting away with the wooden wolf, and black dog... At least until Applebloom walked back in from exploring the other cars.
I watched the two of them play. It was good they were happy. Seeing them together always gave me a warm feeling in my chest. This time though the warm feeling turned into a searing pain and I started coughing.
“Excuse me.” I said between coughs and ran to the bathroom, getting concerned looks from all.
I shut the door and quickly drew a silence rune on the door. Just in time, I jumped to the toilet and started hacking. Soon the door opened and Jynx came in.
“Didn't you take your medicine this morning?” She asked.
“Yeah.” I answered, “Either I'm building a tolerance to the meds, or it's getting worse.”
“We'll talk to the princess when we get there. Maybe she has something better.” Jynx suggested.
“Yeah.” I said and pulled out my pill bottle that I kept in my vest's inside pocket.
I rinsed my mouth out before taking one of the tiny relieving things. Thankfully they were coated in a shell that made them tasteless. Jynx and I waited until the pain receded and went back to join the others. We were meet with concerned stares from everyone.
“Are you OK.” asked Fluttershy.
“Yeah.” I said, “It was just something I ate.”
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Kill him off and I unsubscribe!
....[insert "reason you suck" speech here]...
1370168 1370148 1370069 I know I'm a piece of crap right now, but again I hate sad endings. Just trust me. That's all I can ask.
1370187
Okey doki loki :P
1370187
Im'ma keep my eyes on you.
Godammit this story have my attention in an iron grip! I look forward to the next chapter!
Hate slowly rising..... Need happy ending or someway he survives this
I feel like I should say something about sadness, but honestly, there has to be major conflict for a majorly uplifting ending...Keep it up, and once again, I really want to see if this follows my expectations...granted with you at the helm things could veer in a different direction in a heartbeat haha
1371314 Swag
1371495
Swag indeed good sir!
original-gamer.com/og/images/Sir-Hammerlock.png
Haha okay we are trusting you :) But dont make it that sad okay
I half expected him to go all 'Black Beast' when Celestia said she couldnt cure him.
with what is happening now, it almost makes me want to skip past it. almost. a great story so far, but almost too sad for my liking.
Touvh not the kitten, I have grown fond of him...
Kitteh? Don't leave my little kitten...
IF HE DIES I WILL GATHER ALL THE ARMIES OF THE WORLD (or at least a hit-man) AND GO; well I'll try to kill you okay?