Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

CH65: Requiem Sugar Lorica

“Already?!” Octavia shouted. She and Vinyl had yet again been called to the prince. However, they weren’t quite expecting the news they would get… at least not so soon.

“So, you tryin’ to tell me that your ‘Infiltrators’ already found their Headquarters? Damn, that sounds a lot like a trap to me.” Vinyl said.

“Oh, it most certainly is.” Enigma confirmed. “However, the base is genuine. Apparently they are quite eager to meet you, my prince. So eager in fact that they might just sacrifice all of their hideouts just for this opportunity.”

“Which is even more concerning. If they really want him so much, then surely they have a method of detaining him.” Mystic added.

“They most certainly do. However, if the reports are correct, then they aren’t trying to lure me in. This appears to be more of an open challenge than a bait – a challenge that I am willing to accept.” The prince said. He rose from his throne and made his way past the three ponies before him, over to the doors.

“What, right now?!”

The prince stopped and turned around. “Indeed, dear Octavia. The longer we wait, the more time they will have to prepare for our arrival. We, however, already have gathered everypony we will need.”

Octavia looked around and then back at the prince with a slightly worried look. “Uh, my prince, I don’t want to be rude, but… There are only us four in this room.”

“Again, that is indeed the case. I have already sent orders to the Shadow Guard to deal with the smaller cells and I believe that an elite infiltrator, a vampire, a tentacle monster and a shapeless magical being are quite enough to deal with whatever threat we might be faced with.”

---

“Ahahaha, I can’t believe you fell for that!” Sugarcoat laughed loudly, while prancing in front of the three magic-bound ponies before her.

“I told you that this wouldn’t work.” Octavia pointed out. “Although, that helps us very little right now.”

“Yes, you should have listened to your little friend over there. If you did, you wouldn’t be trapped right now.” Sugarcoat said in a mocking tone.

The prince didn’t respond. Instead, he did something that nopony in the room expected of him: He let his head hang in a gesture of defeat.

“What?!” Sugarcoat blurted. “You can’t be serious! You just give up like that?!”

She stormed over to him, shouting all the while. “I went through all this trouble and now you just give up?! No! I won’t let you!” Her eyes became filled with tears, as her shouting intensified into furious screaming. “I want to see you suffer! I’m going to kill everypony you know and love! I will destroy everypony you know and I will—“

Before she could finish her screaming, she felt a strong impulse, followed by a sharp, burning pain in her chest and back. Her breathing sounded rhaspy and every time the air left her lungs, she could feel liquid coming with it.

She looked down and found that Mortis now had his forehead pressed into her chest. She looked to her back and saw a bloodstained black cone stick out from it.

“Surrender was never an option. I am very sorry, miss Sugarcoat, but this time you have stepped into my trap.” The prince said.

Sugarcoat’s reaction to that was just as unexpected as it was confusing. Her shocked look turned into a relieved smile and a few last tears rolled down her cheeks.

“Yes. That’s the way I knew you… Markus.”

With her last breath expended, she finally fell limp, resting atop the prince’s neck with her smile still on her face. The moment her head hit his back, the magic shackles that held them back disappeared and the anti-magic field that surrounded them collapsed.

“Your leader has been slain!” Enigma shouted. “Lay down your weapons and surrender yourselves! If you do so then none of you shall be harmed!”

A short moment of silence was followed by the clattering of multiple weapons hitting the ground. Enigma and a few of her infiltrators, who had been hiding withing the crowd, arrested the remaining cultists, while the prince was… performing a very weird dance.

“Uhhh, prince? What... what are you doing?” Vinyl asked carefully.

The prince stopped whirling his head around and looked at her, though Sugarcoat’s hanging corpse was blocking his eyes.

“I am just now experiencing the reason, why there is no documented instance of using one’s horn as a weapon within the last thousand years. Now please, would somepony get her off of me?”

---

The Death Realm, no measurable amount of time after Sugarcoat died.

Sugarcoat found herself sitting in a completely white room. She looked around and could not see walls anywhere, just endless nothingness. She looked forward again and recoiled slightly, when she saw Mortis sitting right in front of her.

“Uh, h-hello, prince Mortis.” She greeted meekly.

“Hello, Sugarcoat. Since you should be very well aware of what happened, I presume that you know, where you are?” Mortis greeted back.

“Y-yes, I think I am… We are here so you can judge me, right?”

“Exactly. Now, be aware that, originally, I already had a verdic for you before you even came here. However, your last actions have put up questions that I would like to have answered. Firstly: how did you know that I am Markus?” Markus asked.

“That’s easy to answer!” Sugarcoat blurted a bit too quickly. “My master taught me a bit of soul magic and… well, your body changed, yes, but your soul didn’t.”

“I see. Quite intriguing, indeed. Second question: what were your last words all about?”

Sugarcoat’s face reddened significantly at that and she looked away. “Yeah, well…”

“Well?”

“Well… okay, from the beginning: You remember when you first saw my real face? In the cave?”

Mortis nodded.

“You really impressed me there, you know? Like, I’ve never seen anypony cut down so many foes by himself. Then, when I tried to foalnap the princess, I… I was terrified, I’ll admit that. With what looked like only a few twitches, you had killed my two comrades and destroyed my horn. Thanks for that, by the way. It never had the chance to fully regrow…” she said, rubbing the small cone atop the stump that had previously served as her horn.

“Well, ayways… when you came to interrogate me, you looked to me like the greatest monster in all of pony history, but after I was let go, I became… kinda obsessed with you. I wanted to somehow control you. Seize your power for the brotherhood and such. However, when I tried to, you just repelled the attack and escaped unharmed… at least you would have, but instead you did something that had… unexpected effects on me. Without even thinking, you threw yourself between the purple princess and one of my goons and took the hit. At that moment, I think some kind of switch was flipped. I was still obsessed with you, don’t get me wrong, but… in a different way.”

Sugarcoat drew in a shaky breath – even though she was dead and thus didn’t need air anymore – before she continued.

“I started stalking you. I kept telling myself that it was all for the purpose of gathering intel on you, but…” She trailed off, looking to her hooves for a moment, before continuing. “Then, when you killed master, I felt… weird. I told myself that I was angry at you for killing him, so, since you were dead, I tried to take revenge on your marefriends. When the report then came that there was some new alicorn now, I immediately checked what that was all about and then… I found out that you were Markus.”

“So you realized that your plans in equestria were doomed and tried your luck in the Gryphon Republic.” Mortis concluded.

“What? No! No, that wasn’t the reason at all! I… I…” Sugarcoat tried to defend.

“You what?”

“I… I don’t want to say that out loud. Can I whisper it to you?” She asked.

“I assure you that there is nopony here that could listen in. You are perfectly fine to say what you want.”

“I know that! It’s just… I don’t feel comfortable saying it loud!” Sugarcube replied, heavily blushing while doing so.

Mortis stared her down for a moment, before sighing and complying to her wish. “Okay, what did you want to say?”

“I… I might have fallen for you.” Sugarcoat whispered, making Markus recoil a bit.

“N-Now, I may tell you that sweettalking will not help your case in any way!” A blushing Mortis said quickly.

“But it’s true!” Sugarcoat defended. “When I saw for myself that you were still alive, I was relieved! I was happy that you were still there and I… I might’ve considered trying to seduce you for juuuuuuust a moment…”

“Ah. That doesn’t explain the thing in the Gryphon republic, though.” Mortis reminded.

“May I remind you that that was before I knew you were still alive? Back then, I… had a phase. I was suddenly the leader of the brotherhood, but I also felt so… so lonely. Not to mention that finally, everything that the brotherhood did was laid before my eyes and I felt… bad for it. I didn’t really get anything done during that time, as you might imagine, so some of the higher figures in the brotherhood just bucked off. I also think that they tried to actively remove me by creating evidence to my plans and just leaving it in the open…”

“Ah, I see. I think I have heard enough.” Mortis said.

“Wait, what? What do you mean with that?” Sugarcoat panicked.

“I mean that I have gathered enough information to make my decision.”

“But…”

“Sugarcoat!” Mortis bellowed. “You are well-aware of the blood that clings to your hooves. As such, you are not allowed to pass on into the afterlife.” Mortis said.

“No… please, don’t…”

“Resurrection is also out of the question.”

“No, please!”

“However do not fret, for I will also not destroy you.”

Sugarcoat’s look changed from panick to a relieved smile, while Mortis lifted his left hoof and pointed into the void, where a swirling portal opened at the tip of his hoof.

“This gate leads into a new opportunity for you. A new life, a new name and a new body will be given to you. You shall start anew and be a better pony than in your previous life.”

“Wh-What? Really? …why? Why do you give me this chance?” Sugarcoat asked.

“Because you have shown remorse. Even if your deeds were evil, you have shown that you understand what you have done and thus can still be changed for the better, given the right environment.”

Sugarcoat said nothing for a moment, instead just staring at Mortis, before suddenly jumping at him.

“Oh thank you! Thank you so much! I promise, I will become a better pony! I will!” She exclaimed happily, before running over to the portal. However, she stopped a few metres before it and turned around.

“Say, will I remember any of this? You know, the judgement, my life before that, all that stuff?”

“No, you won’t.” Mortis answered shortly.

“Well, in that case, may I do something real quick before I go?”

Mortis raised a curious eyebrow at that. “Uhh… sure, but be aware that you are dead, so there aren’ many things that—hmpf!”

Sugarcoat rushed back to him and suddenly planted a passionate kiss right onto his mouth.

“Wow… that was the first time I ever kissed a stallion. That felt… weird.” She murmured when she pulled back again, before realizing what she just did and blushing heavily.

“W-well, that was just… ehehehe, you know, umm, I- I have to go!” She stammered, before running back to the portal and jumping through.

Mortis remained still for a while after that, before shaking his head once and releasing the breath that he was holding.

“Phew… I don’t know how, but these cases seem to get exponentially weirder…”

Author's Note:

And so ends a character that I have used not nearly enough and that I wanted to at least have one last, beautiful appearance. Also, I only know very little latin and thus confess without being ashamed that the title was translated with google translate. If I caused anyone to die of cringe with that... well, I suppose they don't care anymore anyways.

Comments

[Fireeaters]

That's cool, I guess. I've been watching the netflix version of Castle in the Sky in the background, and a bunch of the voicelines have been removed.

[Fireeaters]

I think that soul magic thing could become a problem for marky mark and the spooky crew.

[Hawkx1]

Typing the title into Google translate I get “ Sugar rest of mail” and I am now even more confused

[ChakatRedstripe]

Just the whole horn thing tickled me. Good chapter

[Timzocker201]

10787712
the intended Translation is 'A requiem for Sugarcoat'
problem is that there is no latin word for 'sugarcoat', so I translated 'sugar coat' instead.