CHFIN-B: Longcoming
Longcoming
Your eyes were locked onto the direction in which Beaver flew off in. You wanted to strangle him, make him regret ever messing with you or anyone close to you.
However, you couldn’t abandon Pinkie.
No matter how much you wanted revenge, you couldn’t let a friend drown to fulfill your vengeance. Your decision was as clear as Celestia’s sun was bright. You leaned over, bit down on the blade’s handle and picked it up. No doubt this would help with freeing Pinkie from her restraints.
You backed up a couple steps before bursting towards the end of the dock as fast as your legs could carry you, each heavy hooffall thumping on the wooden dock like a drum. As soon as there were no more wooden planks in front of you, you leapt as far up into the air as possible. At the peak of the arc, you brought your hooves together in front of you.
With a muffled splash, you disappeared below the surface of the water and into its murky depths. Involuntary shivers rattled your body as the frigid temperature of the water began its work. Sure, you could have checked the temperature beforehand or thought about what you were doing first.
However, little things like that don’t matter when there’s a life on the line. With your lungs full of air, you swam down towards the bottom of the lake. The visibility here was mediocre at best, the only illumination being the moon’s rays that managed to pierce the surface of the lake. Bubbles rose past you, motivating you to descend faster towards their source.
It got darker as you reached the bottom, but you were able to see a shadowy figure on the bottom below. It took every ounce of willpower not to gasp when you laid eyes on Pinkie Pie struggling fruitlessly against her restraint. That’s when she noticed you and stared into your eyes, desperation ringing clear despite the poor visibility.
She stopped her struggling and resigned to keep her muzzle shut, probably to retain however much air for as long as possible.
You didn’t have time to just sit there and dilly dally. With the knife still gripped in your teeth, you dove towards the rope. Using your hooves to pull the rope taut, you placed the blade’s edge on a section and started rocking your head back and forth like a makeshift saw. Unfortunately, the rope wasn’t one of those thin ones. It was a heavy duty, multi-stranded fiber rope, similar to the ones used with mooring boats or for heavy farm machinery. Each pass with the blade only cut through a few fiber bundles out of the hundred or so that it was made out of. With determination, you began to saw it harder.
That’s when your water-filled ears picked up a rather disturbing sound, a gurgle-like bubbly sound that only made your heart sink. A big group of bubbles were floating towards the surface of the lake, in which you looked back at Pinkie Pie, only to see her eyes wide-open in terror and her mouth gasping for air. You almost dropped the knife in shock.
You just floated there, staring at her eyes as they lost that spark of life and began to focus on nothing. You wanted to cry a river of tears in this vast deep lake, but no, you didn’t want it to end like this, not yet.
Your lungs contorted in pain, reminding you that you didn’t have much time before joining Pinkie in this watery abyss. You went back toward the rope and sliced at it with the knife, seeing strand after strand of rope torn and float down to the muddy lake floor. The rope was now only half sawed through.
The need to breathe in a fresh lung full of air was constantly forcing you to keep it under check. You didn’t want to, obviously, since it would mean certain death if you did. Seconds felt like minutes as the tension began to overpower your own will. Still, you powered on, hoping to hear that tell-tale—
*SNAP*
There! She was free now. However, she wasn’t moving any more. Her legs suspended in place by the frigid water and her eyes stared into nothingness. You gritted your teeth and pushed off the lake floor. If you could get her up to the surface, she’d still have a chance.
Now, the need for air was like a knife stabbed deep into your chest. Each second longer spent down here brought you that much closer to drowning. You had no time to lose.
You wrapped a hoof around Pinkie’s waist and started the ascent. It would have been easy by yourself, but with Pinkie Pie dragging you down, you had to effectively do the work of two ponies. Each progressive stroke seemed to get harder and harder. Your muscles ached fiercely from the lack of air.
Your body couldn’t take it anymore.
As if something squeezed your lungs, the last of your air escaped in a torrent of bubbles. You tried to clamp down and hold onto as much as you could, but it was all for naught. Water began to fill your mouth and, coupled with the need to breathe, almost sent you into panic mode.
With your strength all but gone, your legs failed to respond to your brain’s commands. You coughed sporadically as you tried to expel water that had entered your lungs, but you were slowly losing control over even that.
This was the end, all of this a wasted effort to save somepony that was your dear friend, maybe more. Memories of Pinkie flashed through your brain; the times when she threw you that party, the ways she kept intruding in your life, the way she was so… energetic.
All of it was meaningless now, as your limbs stopped resisting, only accepting the watery embrace. Your vision blurred, your mouth releasing whatever little oxygen was left as you hopelessly watch the bubbles float to the surface.
You tried to say something, anything at all, but were only met with more water inside your lungs. You couldn’t see anything anymore. Everything was dark and cold...
…
…
*****
“…ake up …on’t die lease!”
“…alive?”
“…e fin.. lot of… conscio…”
You couldn’t move and you could barely think straight. You still felt cold and lifeless, yet you were still alive. Why was that?
“…octor… oka… alright…”
“…on’t die… lease…”
Everything sounded broken, like listening to a broken record underwater. Regardless of what it might be, you couldn’t see or hear anything happening around you. Your chest felt heavy, and you were chilled straight to the bone.
Where were you? What happened? Were you alive, or were you in heaven?
“on’t wake up… unconscious…”
The voices were getting louder, maybe even clearer.
“Let me try… I’ll wake him up…”
*SMACK*
A stinging pain snapped you out of your daze. You shot up into a sitting position instantly before falling back onto the ground with a monstrous headache. You groaned in pain, debating what to hold first: your cheek or your head.
“He’s alive! Oh by Celestia he’s alive!”
“S-see? I told you he couldn’t stay down for long.”
“Ma’am, don’t harm the patient!”
“Oh screw you! Look at him, he’s awake now!”
“All of you, out of this room, right now!”
You hesitantly tried to open your eyes, only to shut them tightly as a light blinded you. You rubbed your eyes as you slowly opened them once more to adjust to the light. The first thing you noticed was that you were in a white square room. Covering you was a white cloth blanket, and to your right was an open window.
The curtain was pulled around the left side of the bed, maybe for privacy? Regardless, you concluded that the room resembled that of a low-budget bedroom. That’s when something forcibly stuck itself into your mouth. You gagged as you tried to eject whatever it was using your tongue.
“Would you hold still, sir? I’m trying to take your temperature,” a random voice scolded as what felt like hooves kept your mouth shut around the thermometer. From the edge of your vision, a white mare with a red cross cutie mark appeared and was placing the thermometer back into its proper place.
“Hmm…” she said, pulling the offending mercury stick out of your mouth and holding it up to the light. “95.9, a little on the low side, but seeing as you were suffering from severe hypoxia and hypothermia earlier, that’s perfectly normal. It’s good to see you conscious though,” the pony remarked, backing away as she placed the metal thermometer on a nearby table out of sight and writing something down on a clipboard.
You demanded to know where you were, to which the pony just raised a brow at you and placed her clipboard down.
“You’re in the hospital, sir, and may I remind you to keep your voice down?”
You were confused. She said a hospital, but your memory was still a wreck. What exactly had happened? She returned to your sight with another instrument in hoof: it was some kind of black cuff with tubing on it connected to a stethoscope. She shimmied it up your right foreleg and started compressing it to the point of it being extremely tight and uncomfortable. Sometimes, you felt like their guinea pig whenever they did their tests on you.
The last thing you could remember was the docks and the bottom of the lake when… did you drown? It was fuzzy at best. That and the pounding headache definitely didn’t help make things clearer.
“Now that that’s all taken care of,” she stated, placing the stupid cuff on the table and eyeing you carefully. “Any questions that don’t involve loud outbursts?”
Of course you had some. What kind of pony wouldn’t? However, what came to the surface first was simply wanting to know what happened to you. The nurse sighed as she picked up the clipboard on the table and scanned through it.
“You fell unconscious due to a combination of hypercapnia and hypoxia.” A blank stare was all she got when she looked at you. ”That means you had extremely high levels of carbon dioxide in your blood and not enough oxygen. Now, you’ve been out for at least two days.” She walked up to your bedside and smiled. “It’s a miracle you got here when you did. If your friends didn’t get you here any sooner, I’m afraid you would have sustained irreparable brain damage from the lack of oxygen. Honestly, ponies these days need to learn how to perform CPR. It’s amazing that your friends had no idea how to,” she added with a sigh, tapping the clipboard with a quill.
“That buff-looking pony and your mare-friends were certainly worried about you. You should be glad to have such friends rushing to your side. Although, I wish that purple mare didn’t slap you. Honestly, that could have done more harm than good.”
You do recall a stinging sensation on your cheek, but you didn’t know how long ago it was, to which she shook her head. A purple pony she said… Berry?
“Regardless, you’re conscious and you seem stable. However, you should stay in the hospital for a couple more days so we make sure anything else doesn’t pop up. Last thing we’d want is to let you go now and find out that you have pneumonia or something later, right?”
You couldn’t agree more. You rested your head against the soft pillow of the bed you were in, alleviating a small portion of the headache while staring at the white ceiling.
“ Now, I do believe you have visitors outside waiting to see if you’re alright. Do you want me to tell them to come back later after you’ve rested?”
You shook your head and told her to let them in. The longer they waited to see you, the worse they’d get, you reckoned. The nurse pony nodded, grabbed her clipboard, and walked out of the room, leaving the door open behind her. Three ponies filed into the room following the nurse’s wake. No, sorry, it was more like watching a small herd of stampeding buffalo approaching. They surrounded your bed and froze in place, staring at you in shock. A precursory sweep of the room revealed the faces of two mares and one stallion:
Pinkie Pie, Loud Hoof, and Berry Punch…
What shocked you the most was that Pinkie was there with them as well. She looked as alive and well as any other day you’d seen her. Berry’s eyes looked so bloodshot and swollen that she must have been crying for days. Loud Hoof just stood there, staring at you with a hearty smile on his face.
A few moments passed in silence, which felt more like hours as they continued to stare at you. Pinkie was the first one to break the ice when she walked towards you, resting her hooves on your bedside.
“You’re alive… oh Celestia, you’re alive…!” she weakly said, a tear running down her cheek. Out of nowhere, she wrapped her hooves around your neck and started openly sobbing into your neck. Despite how uncomfortable it was, you felt that she needed to vent her sadness. That and she was actually very warm, so it kind of balanced out.
Berry joined with the sobbing as she grabbed on to you too, nuzzling your neck and her tears soaking your coat as well. There was probably a joke in here somewhere about how you got all the mares, but this wasn’t the time nor the place. Your neck was in a vice composed of Berry and Pinkie’s forelegs, and they were slowly choking you. You tapped them on the shoulder, and they immediately relented slightly, wiping away their tears with a hoof.
“I can’t believe you’re alive… it’s a miracle! When you disappeared from my apartment, I just… I thought I’d never see you again!” Berry sobbed, before wrapping around your neck again. Naturally, Pinkie felt it best to resume her chokehold as well.
With your hooves under their bellies, you managed to barely push them away before having to stop, panting from exhaustion. The deeper a breath you took, the more it hurt. That and your muscles were probably still weak after that entire ordeal. Hoof thankfully interjected here, still sporting that sincere smile.
“Hey… h-how are you?”
You mentioned how your body felt rather stiff, and how your stomach felt like someone threw it into a pot of boiling water. Hoof sighed in what seemed to be relief. “I figured as much… I’m just glad you’re okay. You and Pinkie had a close brush with d-death. It’s a miracle you two are alive.”
“But what happened the other night? Why did you leave my place?” Berry asked.
Hoof Interjected, “I-It’s a long story, ma’am, but I’m sure you all deserve to hear it.”
You certainly did. After all, why was Hoof working with Beaver? You had a small idea on why, but you wanted to hear it straight from the horse’s mouth, so to speak. Everypony pulled a chair up to your bedside before sitting down, the mares and yourself eagerly awaiting Hoof’s explanation.
Hoof looked at you and everyone else before scanning the rest of the room, as if to make sure they were alone. Hoof gave a small sigh.
“It’s b-been going on ever since we entered Ponyville… Beaver had an elaborate scheme to hunt you down and to make sure you were either dead or gravely injured.” He looked down at the floor for a few seconds before looking up at you. “He threatened to kill me if I didn’t listen to him,” he whispered.
It figured that Hoof was being strong-armed by Beaver, but you never thought it was that bad. You asked if Hoof was responsible for any of the accidents, to which he shook his head.
“No, B-Beaver was the one who planned the l-lamp and ceiling accidents, but I did fire that arrow at you back in that shopping district. I want you to know I’m really sorry for doing that.”
“But if Beaver was blackmailing you into doing this, why didn’t you just tell the guards?” Berry commented, to which you nodded as well. Why didn’t he tell the guards?
“B-Beaver kept a close eye on me. Every time I went out, it felt like I was being watched, or better yet, stalked all the time. I looked behind once, and I saw him staring, no, glaring at me, i-it was really scary…”
“So you couldn’t go to the guards, in fear that Beaver would kill you? That’s… that’s horrible.”
“Who… who would do something like that?” Pinkie whispered with a frown.
You knew Beaver was paranoid, but this took the proverbial cake. After that entire ordeal last night, it wasn’t hard to believe what Hoof said. Hoof didn’t have any backbone, and it certainly wasn’t out of the norm for him to be under somepony’s hoof.
With that answered, the ocean of questions you held back rushed in. Each one vied to be answered, but one stuck out the most: how did Pinkie and yourself get out of that lake? You explained what happened from after you dived in until after you blacked out, and Hoof just smirked. Pinkie and Berry gasped.
“You… you saved me, Mr. Top Hat?” You looked at Pinkie and nodded, but restated that you met the same fate as her shortly after. You frowned and started mumbling about how you could have prevented this if you had acted faster.
“It wasn’t all for naught though,” Hoof hinted. ”If you hadn’t dived in to save Pinkie, I never would’ve found you.”
You stared at Hoof at a loss for words. How was that helpful in any way?
“Ah right, you don’t remember… Maybe this,” he remarked, reaching over to you side where the night stand should be, ”will jog your memory.” He placed it on your chest, and you blinked in unabated awe.
Your black top hat…
You reached out and took it in your hooves, checking to see it was alright, except for the big hole where the arrow narrowly missed your head. All in all, it looked well intact except for the water marks on the entire brim of the hat. You looked over at Hoof, still confused. Hoof face-hoofed.
“Your hat was floating on top of the lake,” he stated obviously. ”When I walked back to the dock to look for you, that’s what I found in the lake. I took this as a sign that you dove in, and I dove in right after you. Thank Celestia I did too. The both of you looked half-dead, and I thought you two had drowned, but…
I used my magic to levitate you and Pinkie out of the lake. I didn’t know how to perform CPR, so I took you two straight to the hospital,” Hoof conceded.
You looked at your hat for a moment, still at a loss for words. Your hat had saved you. That was something else entirely. After all that that hat had been through, it was still faithfully at your side, almost like a dog, but less messy. If it weren’t for it, you’d probably be fish food by now.
“Wow, you saved both of them? You’re one courageous stallion…” Berry said with a smile, staring at Hoof.
“N-No, it’s nothing. I just didn’t want my friends to die…”
You thanked him profusely, grateful that your life and Pinkie’s was saved.
“I… I just don’t know how to thank you, Mr. Top Hat, and you too, Hoof. Both of you saved my life, it’s just… I just don’t know what to do. I think I should throw you all a super duper party though!”
“Um, Pinkie? Could you come here for a minute? I need to talk to you?” Berry motioned to Pinkie, to which Pinkie just tilted her head.
“Huh? What for?” she inquired.
“Just come here, alright?”
You raised a brow, seeing Pinkie and Berry walk out of the room. Berry just smiled and waved.
“Mare talk, something stallions shouldn’t know about.”
After that, they just walked out the door, closing it behind them. You and Hoof just looked at the door in confusion for a moment before sighing at the same time.
“I wonder what that was all about?” You merely shrugged at Hoof’s response. “Well anyway, is there anything else you need to know?”
You asked him where Beaver was. He shrugged, “I’m not sure. He flew off over me when you beat him up. My guess is he disappeared off somewhere. I’m going to tell the guards about this incident though. I’m sure they’ll put out a search warrant for him.”
You nodded, saying that would be for the best. You just couldn’t believe all of this would happen. Beaver going insane, your father… it was all unbelievable. You leaned back on your pillow, ramming your hoof on the bed despite its painful twinges, mumbling why Beaver would go to such lengths to kill your father over some stupid misplaced revenge.
Hoof just sat there silently, frowning at you. “I won’t pretend to know how it was like, losing a father, but I’m sure you’ve gone through a lot.” He placed a hoof on your shoulder. ”You need to calm down.”
You slapped his hoof away, glaring at Hoof. You told him how Beaver just practically ruined your life anyway. Berry’s Bar was probably nothing more than a pile of charcoal and ashes now. You had almost died from that deranged lunatic and his displaced anger. Everything that you thought you knew was slowly turning around to kick you in the flank.
“Not everything, Mr. Top Hat.”
You and Hoof looked towards the hospital door, with Berry and Pinkie standing behind it. You didn’t see or hear them open the door and neither did Hoof. Berry patted Pinkie’s back with a smile, motioning for her to go forward.
“I believe Pinkie has something to say to you, Mr. Top Hat. Hoof? Think you could step out for a bit? I believe these two need to be alone.”
“Er, why?”
Berry crossed her arms and glared at Hoof. Hoof gulped.
“Er, well, I mean…”
Berry grabbed him by the ear, practically dragging him towards the door.
“Hey, ow! Don’t pull my ear like that! L-let go!”
After what seemed to be a rather amusing scene, Berry closed the door behind her, with Hoof in hoof(ba dum bump tish). Pinkie seemed to have taken a great interest in the floor and was staring at it with unbridled focus. She seemed to be trembling though, her cheerful attitude no longer present.
You tilted your head, trying to get a look at her face, but you couldn’t see it from your bed. You asked her what was wrong.
“Huh? Oh, um…” Pinkie gasped when she shook her head. “No, it’s nothing, it’s just… Berry just said some things to me, and well… asked me some questions.” Pinkie walked up to you and took the closest seat to your bedside, placing her hooves up onto the bed.
She gave you a precursory once-over before actually looking at you with her big eyes. She opened her mouth but closed it a moment later. You asked her what was wrong, but she didn’t reply. There was a palpable tension in the air, and the silence felt painfully awkward.
“When I learned that you saved me…” Pinkie Pie said, in a weaker tone than usual. “I didn’t know how to react. I felt really really happy, but I just didn’t know how to express it. The first thing that I always do is throw a party, or bake them a cake. But this… this is a different kind of ‘happy’.
“When Berry brought me out to ask me a few things, I told her that I was extremely happy, but then she told me if I felt anything different than what I usually do.” She looked back at you, brows furrowed. “My stomach felt weird, my heart was beating really fast, and I felt really… warm.”
“That’s when she told me about something I’ve never thought about, I…” She didn’t say anything else, her gaze falling back to the floor.
You didn’t know how to react to this situation. You had a feeling you knew what she was saying, but was it really that? Could she be talking about… love? She looked back at you, with her front hooves clopping against each other.
“Ooh… I don’t know how to say it. I just… I get all weird when I’m around you, and not the bad sort of weird. I don’t…”
She leaned her head in, bringing her face in close to yours. Your heart was beginning to beat even faster. “Berry told me if I couldn’t express it in words…” Her lips were brought closer to yours. “…I should express it with actions.”
Your eyes went wide when something wet and soft touched your lips. Pinkie’s face was very close to yours and her pink lips brushed against yours. You were certainly shocked that your gut feeling was right on the dot, but was she doing this out of love, or out of confusion?
Millions of scenarios flooded your brain, but only one made perfect sense: that she loved you.
Your body felt like a bolt of lightning was flowing through it, radiating from your lips and out to the rest of your body. The pain seemed to melt away the longer you kissed her. Involuntarily, your hooves snaked around her, pulling her in closer and strengthening the kiss. She flinched when your hooves touched her, but she seemingly melted in your hooves the longer you held her in your embrace. Everything seemed to dissolve around the both of you. Nothing else mattered at this moment, nothing at all.
Eventually, she broke the kiss, panting heavily. You stared up into those deep blue eyes and smiled.
“I love you… Mr. Top Hat.”
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I'm not even going to read the other ending.
This is just... perfect.
The waiting was totally worth it. This ending made my day.
Awesome job
Alt. Title: Massive P.A.Y.: Pinkie And You or Pink November Rain or You And Her: A Symphonic Fanfic With Pinkie Pie
1769298
It's 4 months too late to change the title... lol.
1769302
I know. I do this to all the fanfics in the featured box.
DDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
I'm glad I read this ending first. However, I did quite enjoy the last line of ending A.
Both endings were truly fitting of your choice.
Read this ending first DAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWWWWWWW
Read second ending
Read this ending again ALL BETTER!
A perfect ending to a perfect story. You good sir deserve a mustache!
Oh, bravo. Bravo.
It's just like playing a video game with morality choices: always pick the good ending first if you can help it.
For the record, I did read the bad ending, and while I expected to feel like crap, I actually got a good laugh out of it.
Kudos, DragonLS. I salute you for this awesome story.
1769763
I'm glad I didn't read that other ending then!
Wait...the story ended? B-b-b-but, it said it was incomplete!
1770628
As it is, it's indeed over, but there's just the Epilogue left. It will be posted tomorrow.
....This ending seems.... Well, a little.... Hmmm....
Ponies are acting stupid.
I mean, 1. "Oh, I'm probably going to tell the guard later." IT'S BEEN TWO DAYS. HE COULD BE ANYWHERE BY NOW. Seriously, your first reaction isn't to call the cops?
2. He is FAR too lenient with hoof. I mean, dude tried to murder him. "Oh, he made me" does NOT stand up in any sort of court, and it sure as hell shouldn't stand with him.
1771313
1. Perhaps I didn't think out the "two days later" part, but the effect would've been the same regardless. However, you do bring up a good point.
2. Hoof saved the protag's life. How would you feel if a blackmailed murderer came to your rescue? It's supposed to draw in mystery and confusion. I mean, c'mon, Hoof is a softie to begin with, which is apparent quite a few chapters ago.
1771399 That's very true. But "I" also wouldn't have been in that situation if he'd just grown a fucking spine
Seriously, walk into a police station. What's he going to do, follow you in and stab you there? Say "I know somepony who is trying to kill somepony, and he's attempting to coerce me to help him."
Boom. That simple. He gets arrested, hoof doesn't get stabbed and nopony gets chucked in a lake
AAAAW it's so happy...
This made my day, Bravo!
now I have to read the alternate ending though...
Oh yeah, I far prefer this ending. Good thing I chose it over the other one.
ARMS
Ummmmmm....... I think you mean forelegs.
I think........
1774821
Honestly, it's debatable... It's better than saying she crossed her front legs. Besides, I think in a sense ponies have "arms", just not "hands".
177485125.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_luzjmlQsxf1qfmoopo1_500.gif
hey, its your story.
1771527 Or wait until he's a asleep and shoot him with poisoned arrows, dipped into a concentrated Jimpson Weed/poison hemlock/Amantia mushroom extract. Quite deadly, quite quickly. He has to sleep eventually, or else he'll start hallucinating... which will make it even easier to kill him.
(Never threaten Alondro... never...)
.
1774851 Sounds a bit odd though. I tried imagining that and I can only see it if she sits down or stands.
I hope no one picked to go after him. If someone did, why? Why!? Why would you let pinkie die!? You and idiot if you did this second. Letting pinkie drown... How cruel are you?!
*are
Lol you should have made this the ending
Just replace snowflake with beaver