• Published 21st Jan 2017
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My Little Dashie: The Aft5rlife - Rdasher12



A continuation of My Little Dashie: Fourth Time's the Charm, and the other three preceding it. Brian has reached the afterlife, so everything's perfect now. No, wait... something's wrong. There's a color that’s still missing here. Or rather, six

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Chapter 5: Out of (Dead) Body Experience

Author's Note:

Hey there, everybody. I'm sorry that this chapter is a week late. Like I said in the last chapter, I had a funeral to attend which took up almost all of my weekend. So, I worked on this chapter all throughout the week. I hope that I haven't disappointed any of you. Expect things to be back on schedule for the next few chapters at least.

Rdasher12

(P.S. This chapter got published on the 17th of Feb. 2017. Happy 4 years, 5 months to the MLD timeline :))

"Oh my God..."

The very thing that I've just witnessed was more alien than I ever thought possible. Something that no living being would ever have the ability to see, their own lifeless body being presented to the public, and later buried where they started their new life with their daughter.

The experience was one of the few things that I can be surprised by at this point. I thought that I'd already seen everything there was to see. Truth be told, it'd be an understatement to say that I was high on the list of people who have seen and experienced the strangest things.

I've experienced growing up in an already dying city, experienced my own parents passing away at a young age. I've gone through living in near poverty, as well as the sadness that came along with it. It may not sound like it at first glance, but that was really the more normal part of it.

I've also discovered someone that doesn't exist. Or rather, somepony that shouldn't exist. Not in that world, at least. I then took the rainbow-colored pony home with me and raised it. And I raised her as if she were my own daughter.

So I've taken care of a pony, loved a pony, played with a pony, and above all else, I made sure that she enjoyed her life in a world that wasn't meant to house her. For a whole fifteen years, I did those things, only to be separated from her for six months.

I've been transported to a new world from an alternate dimension, and I became the only one of my kind in that place. I've been turned into a pony myself, even if it was for only a brief moment.

I've grown wings from out of my back and became the first man to fly without any outside aid. I later had those very wings come to the end of their lifespan, meaning they had to be surgically removed, which left two scars that I'd live out the rest of my life with.

I've attended Wonderbolt derbies to cheer on my pony daughter. I've had her be away from me for three whole years while she was off at a monastery for advanced training. I went back in time in order to get a birthday present just for her.

I've been diagnosed with cardiac dysrhythmia, which would eventually lead to my own demise. I've laughed myself into a heart attack while escaping a magician trying to take control of my mind. I've fought the darkness that tried to take me away from everything that I cared about before my time had come. I've sat in a hospital bed for over a month straight. I've been brought back to life on numerous occasions.

Perhaps the only normal thing that happened to me during my life was my death. Everyone dies, and there's no escaping that. Unless of course, you're an alicorn princess, but that's beside the point.

I also ended up here, just like every person/pony does. It doesn't matter if I'm not in the afterlife that most every other person is, I'm still here.

But this... this has to have been the strangest thing that I've ever witnessed. This has to be the worst time of my afterlife.

It was one of those things where the horror of it all made me want to look away, but curiosity managed to keep my eyes keenly focused on everything that was going on.

I was perched on my normal view of Ponyville, a short way up in the sky, not too much higher than the town hall. You'd think that everything on the ground below would be too far away to see, but one of the upsides to passing just so happened to be the ability to focus in on whatever was happening in a specific place.

I saw a small stage that was in front of a group of about forty. It included Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Applejack, Rarity, Fluttershy, Spike, Princess Luna, The Cakes, The Cutie Mark Crusaders, Crystal, and...

Forest... dang it. I nearly forgot about him up here. I know that we settled our differences while I was still down there, but I don't think that he'll ever be on my good side. I still haven't given up the idea that he may be a human, whether he knows it, or not. But, I suppose that matter can be dealt with some other time.

At that point, my mind was focused on finding Dashie. No matter how many times I looked, she wasn't in the crowd with everypony else. She had to have been close, though. I could just sense that she was nearby. We do have a connection, after all.

I began searching near the stage. Either she was off on the sidelines somewhere, or behind the curtains. She must've been participating in whatever was taking place. I looked off the sides of the small stage. First, I looked right. Nope, nothing there. I then proceeded to look towards the left side.

To my relief, I saw Dashie. She seemed to be frantically reading a sheet of paper, so she would be speaking. But, then I looked to her right. What I saw shook me to my core.

"What the hell?!" No, no, no, no. That CANNOT be me.

The thing I was looking at felt like an undead mirror. It was as if I were a ghost leaving my fallen body and I was about to go haunt someplace. There were no words to describe the feeling of defeat that encumbered me at that moment...

For several moments I just stared at my corpse, hoping that it would magically disappear into thin air, so I could rest my eyes as well as my mind. I felt myself falling into the pit of despair that nearly defeated me back on Earth with no escape in sight.

Until I heard an all too familiar voice that seemed to lift my spirits back to what was happening.

What she said quite literally made me float in the air. I would've been surprised, but the words that came out of her mouth kept me solely focused on her.

I knew those words, and it made me beam with joy that she would use something so familiar to the both of us at what was likely my funeral. I felt as if I'd finally been completed after nearly a month of being in the afterlife. The whole time I've been here, I've never felt whole. Almost as if I didn't truly belong here just yet, but by then, I certainly did.

What I saw next gave me a big smile. Dashie finished what she had to say and trotted off of the stage. At first, I thought that was it, but she almost instantly flew up towards me.

I thought I felt some kind of softness press against my cheek just before she flew up. I wasn’t too sure what that could’ve been, but I didn’t really care right that second. I could hear the breaking of the sound barrier as she passed me, which gave me an energy that I haven't felt since I arrived here!

Dashie then looked over to me and gave me the greatest smile that I've ever seen come across her face. I could only smile back as best I could, hoping that she could see me, or at the very least, sense me.

To me, this proved that she was prepared to move on to the next stage of her life. She has a great career as a Wonderbolt going for her, and that position isn't going anywhere for a long time. I just hoped that I could see her races from here on out. It'd give me something to look forward to every once in a while, and I'm sure she'd love the support, even if she may not know that I'm even there.

During all of my thinking, Dashie and everypony else left the area. As I came to, I began to look for them. After only a few short seconds, I saw them by the lake, the same lake I was teleported to over twelve years ago now.

I kind of started to freak out at this point. The idea that the lake may've been where they chose to bury me crept into my mind. This gave me chills down my spine. I never did get the opportunity to buy out a grave site, I thought I'd have a whole thirty years or so to do things like that. Boy, was I wrong?

The events that ensued over the next hour might've been something that I shouldn't have seen. I'd already been through a roller coaster of different emotions, from confusion to happiness, then to panic, which turned into a feeling of disgust, and defeat. Then it was back to being happy, then confused again, and now this. It actually made me feel more sickened than anything else. I became nauseous and had to sit down.

The ponies of Ponyville somehow found the exact point at which I started out down there, and I was buried in that very place. I could make out the engravings on my tombstone. They read:

Brian "The Human" Dash
August 10th, 1990 - June 23rd, 2037*.
A great friend to all.
"The best dad a pony could ask for."

- Rainbow Brian Dash (Dashie)

They put a star next to my date of death? Nevermind that. Dashie changed her middle name from "Danger" to my first name of "Brian"? Nevermind that. I'm the best dad that a pony could ever ask for? Now that was high praise.

The roller coaster of emotions seemed to finally come to a halt, with a feeling of warmth engulfing my body. It was the best feeling that I'd felt in a long time, and I didn't want it to ever come to an end.

I turn back to my normal state before almost immediately falling asleep. The warmth that I was experiencing could only be imitated by resting at the bottom of a basket filled with a freshly dried load of laundry. So warm and cozy. Drifting off to sleep within mere seconds was inevitable.

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"The weather for today will be rather chilly, as the cold front we mentioned earlier this week has made its way from Canada. The high won't be getting any warmer than forty-five degrees Fahrenheit, and the low will be a frosty thirty. With winter fast approaching, there's a tough question that's been left unanswered in all of our heads, 'When will Michigan get its first snowfall?' I'm Brenton Balser, and you're watching the eight o-clock weather report. Have a nice day."

"Well Dashie, I'm about to head off to work. Anything you want me to get you while I'm at the store?" I said as I walked into the living room. Dashie was watching the morning cartoons. She'd become quite fond of them over the course of a few months, and I too had come to enjoy them.

"Dad, can I have a Spongebob toy?" She asked while pointing her hoof in the direction of the TV. Spongebob was visiting his mother, and she kissed his son on the cheek as she gave him a plateful of cookies.

"Aw, Dashie. Of course, you can. I'll be sure to pick one up on my way out." Back then, I was kind of iffy about getting her a lot of human things to play with. I had no way of knowing how it would influence her, being a pony and all. Not to mention just how tight my budget became after she entered my life. But I supposed that one would be fine. I could test out my theory, and go from there.

"Thank you, Dad!" She then trotted over to me and I kneeled down to embrace her as she did. She felt so happy, the energy emanating from her was enough to brighten up my mood, even on the worst of days.

"You're welcome, Dashie. Is there anything else?" I put her down and immediately felt her happiness leave me, but I knew that she would be here when I got back home, with the same spunk and attitude that I'd come to love.

"No, that's it, Dad. Have a nice day at work." I stood up upon hearing that and headed towards the door.

"Thank you, Dashie. I'll be back home before you know it." I proceeded to put on my old leather jacket and was about to open the door when I heard her voice again.

"Wait, Daddy! One more thing!" She dashed over to me and motioned for me to pick her up. So I did just that.

"What is it, my little Dashie?" I only called her that when things seemed serious. It helped to show her that I was giving her my undivided attention.

With her hoof, she motioned for me to bring my face closer to hers. Usually, she would whisper something cute, or funny into my ear at that point. But, she had me guessing on that one. Not that I was complaining, or anything. She then pulled my cheek up to her lips and gave me the cutest peck that I'd ever felt.

"Aww, thank you, Dashie." I gave her one back and she giggled as I did. I could tell that she was having fun, the same kind of fun that any daughter would have with her father.

I put her back down and gave her a big smile as I opened the door, walked out of the house, and began to close the door. All the while, Dashie looked into my eyes, smiling from ear to ear. I was just glad that I could make her happy. Glad that I could make sure that she enjoyed her life in a world that wasn't meant to house her.

I pulled out my key and locked the two deadbolts, the Masterlock, and finally the doorknob so that no one would be able to find her. So that no one would take her, or something worse. She was all I had, and I was all she had. Even if that's not a good way for her to grow up, it's the best that I can do for her.

From that point on, I vowed to do the very best that I could do for her, in order to keep her happy. In order to make her feel as normal as possible. My little Dashie deserved the best that I could manage, and that was what she would get.