Equestria: The Afterlife

by Timzocker201

CH67: Reunion

Nightmare Night had finally arrived. Ponyville was lush with decorations and one could not set a hoof outside without running into at least one foal that was dressed up and ready to earn some candy. Twilight and Rainbow were out tonight as well, though they were looking for a different kind of sweetness…

The letter they had received a month ago said that, on this Nightmare Night, Markus was finally returning. For that occasion, Twilight and her friends were to gather at the entrance to Applejack’s barn at exactly 10pm, which left them with the difficult task of finding somepony to watch Dawnbreaker and Spectral Flash. Luckily, Mystic Gem and Starlight volunteered to do that, although in Twilight’s opinion that meant that the ‘bring your friends’-part wasn`t fulfilled anymore.

With the two troublemakers in good hooves and Spike and Scootaloo out with the CMC to collect some candy, Twilight and Rainbow made their way to the mentioned meetingpoint.

“Alright, Twi, we’ve come ‘ere. So, what’d Markus’s letter tell ya t’do now?” Applejack asked, when they arrived.

“Uhhh, nothing, sadly. I only know that we were to be here at exactly 10pm…” Twilight was interrupted by the Townshall’s bell chiming ten times. “Which would be now, so… why are you looking so scared?” Twilight asked as she looked back at Applejack, who was looking at her in pure shock… or rather, she was looking behind her.

What Applejack had spotted and what everypony except Twilight and Rainbow were also now setting their eyes on was a cloud of black dust directly behind the two. Two yellow eyes were shining out of the cloud and appendages that looked like an amalgamation of arms and Tentacles were quickly moving to grab ahold of the two mothers.

Before anypony could react, they were sucked into the cloud. Both let out a surprised cry, which was cut off as they entered the cloud and their voices were silenced. The cloud condensed into a small orb which then flew away, barely slow enough to not shake off the remaining elements.

The four mares took up pursuit almost immediately, chasing the orb through the farm, past Fluttershy’s cottage and into the Everfree Forest. The orb flew through the bushes and through trees as if they weren’t even there, while Applejack, Fluttershy and Pinkie had a hard time squeezing themselves through every gap they could find. Rarity meanwhile was only ever using the paths that the others had already used and opened, so that her effort and thus the damage to her coat and mane were minimal.

Finally, the flying orb reached an open path, where it sped off, barely slow enough for the mares to see, which way it took, but at the same time far too fast to ever hope to catch up.

“Ooooh, a game of ‘tag’, huh? Well, guess what, I’ve NEVER lost a game of tag before!” Pinkie proclaimed, before rushing down the pathway, her remaining friends now struggling to even keep up with her.

After a few minutes spent in full gallop, they finally arrived at, what looked like an abandoned mansion. It had a spiked metal fence put up around it, although the fence and the yard behind it looked like they hadn’t been maintained for well over a century by now. The house itself didn’t look any better either. Most of the windows were shattered and had plants growing through them, while the few that weren’t were either boarded shut or so dusty and dirty that one could never hope to look through them, even from up close.

The group looked upon the building in awe and maybe with a bit of fear, while slowly forcing themselves to advance further. However, as soon as they passed the gate, it slammed shut behind them, leaving them trapped in the yard, with no alternative but to press on.

“Aaah, a sissy, two cowards and a lunatic, coming to rescue their hopeless friends.” A familiar deep voice suddenly said out of nowhere. The group looked around and spotted a pony silhouette with yellow eyes standing on the roof of the mansion, before it dissolved and reformed on the ground, a few meters to their left.

“Chivalrous. Truly chivalrous.” It said, advancing on them. The group took defensive stances, ready to be attacked, when the silhouette dissolved again reformed on their other side, with its back turned towards them. “Go ahead, you will find your friends just inside. Your friends, as well as your demise.”

With a dark and overly evil laughter, the figure formed into an orb and flew into the mansion and then, everything went silent.

“W-w-what was t-that?” A shivering Fluttershy asked.

“A-Ah dunno, b-but w-we need ta m-move on—“Applejack shook the fear from her head, before finishing her sentence. “We need to move on in order to save our friends. Markus said he’d be comin’ back t’day and ah’ll be damned if Rainbow an’ Twilight were not there t’ greet him!” She assured, more to steel her own resolve than that of her friends.

“Y-Yes, you are right, Applejack. I simply cannot allow such a ruffian to disturb such an important day for our friends!” Rarity said and Fluttershy and Pinkie nodded their agreement. They all shared one last look, before they stormed into the mansion. A long hallway stretched out before them with doors on either side, however only the one right on the other side had light shining through its gaps.

Without much thinking, the group stormed towards that door and when they reached it, Applejack swung around with her powerful hind legs and kicked it open.

“Oh hey girls, it really took you a while.” Twilight said upon their entrance. She and Rainbow were sitting on a rather comfortable looking couch at a wooden table, on which there were two mugs of steaming coffee, which they were casually swirling in.

“Uhhh… Twi? Rainbow? Are you… are you alright?” Applejack asked with no small amount of astonishment and suspicion.

“Do I look wrong to you? If so, then you must be imagining things, I am perfectly alright.” Twilight said, while the other three filed into the room. Just when Fluttershy had entered the room, she took a small sip of her coffee and right at that moment, the door slammed shut behind them.

They all whipped around and saw that there was a third pony hidden behind the open door and waiting for his cue. It wasn’t just some pony either. It had a distinct red coat with a black mane and tail and was significantly larger than the other ponies in the room. It also was an alicorn, the wings and horn being the same black as the mane and tail. He was laying down on a patch of straw which, while not exactly looking comfortable over longer periods, was certainly a major improvement to the cold stone floor beneath.

“Greetings.” Prince Mortis greeted from his perch.

“Prince Mortis? Why are you here? Oh, oh, did you come to save Rainbow and Twilight? That would be great, because we came here to do that tooandifyouwanttodothesamethenwecanworktogether!” Pinkie rattled down.

“That would indeed be a reasonable proposal… if I were actually here to save them, that is. After all, it would be quite paradoxical of me to save them, as I am the one who brought them here in the first place.” Mortis answered.

“What?! No, NO, you can’t do that! You said yourself that Markus would return today! You can’t just—“ Rarity shouted, but Mortis cut her off.

“Never have I claimed that Markus, specifically, would return. I merely said that their rightful husband would return, and return he did indeed. Rainbow, Twilight, come to my side.” He said, opening his wings slightly to give Twilight and Rainbow some room beneath.

“Yes, master.” They both repeated in a slightly cheerful voice. They then laid down on either side of the alicorn and Mortis closed his wings again, pressing the two mares gently to his sides.

“Oh, so that’s how it is? From the beginning, you always just wanted them to be yours and we fools actually fell for your scheme!” Rarity overdramaticized.

“Indeed, I always wanted them to be my own. However, they seem to be of high value to you as well and you know what? You can have them back.”

“We—what?” Rarity asked in disbelief.

“You heard right, you can have them back… however, in exchange I will need something else from you.” Mortis said, standing up and slowly walking towards Rarity, who was gritting her teeth by now.

“And what would that be, you filthy beast?” She hissed.

“I need you to…”

The whole room was suddenly filled with thick, black smoke which completely blocked all view.

---

Twilight and Rainbow were thrown down on something… that felt strangely soft and bouncy. They were both too occupied with hacking and coughing over the very bizarre feeling of being compressed into an infinitely small point to even notice this. And just as quickly as they were let go, they felt themselves be picked up again and… kissed?

Both ripped their eyes open, struggling against the action, but when they laid eyes upon who was kissing them, their resistance immediately fell.

The brown hair, the small nose and the scar that ran across it from between his eyes… finally, Markus was holding both of them again. They closed their eyes in contentment and relished this moment of reunion, letting a few joyful tears flow.

When Markus finally broke the kiss, he smiled at both mares in his arms and proudly proclaimed. “I am ba—OW! Okay, I deserved that.” He said, as a left hook from Twilight hit him on the cheek.

“OW! Okay, I deserved that too.” He said, as Rainbow did the same, before coming back around for a backhoof blow. “OW! Hey, now you’re pushing it!”

“I’M pushing it?! What about you?! What were you thinking?! Where have you been?! Don’t you know how we’ve been feeling this whole time? Did you even care?” Rainbow shouted, while starting to cry. “This whole time, we were only one small step from completely losing it, you know? Do you even know how hard it was to… to see you die like that?”

“I’m… I’m sorry.” Markus apologized. “I never intended to make you sad, I just… I wanted you to be safe and… I had thought that I was the root of all evil. That I might have been the reason why so many things happened and that, by going down with the last enemy, I could make sure that you get to live on in peace. However, things would not turn out this way and so… I was brought back a few days later.” Markus explained.

“But where have you been? If you’ve been here all this time, then why didn’t you come back to us? Why couldn’t you at least show yourself to us?” Twilight asked him, her own tears falling freely, though she managed to keep some control.

“Actually, I… I kinda did.” Markus said. He put the two back down and took a step backwards. He then transformed into his alicorn form, which had Twilight and Rainbow stand in speechless awe.

“W-wait, you are Prince Mortis?! B-But how?! WHY?!” Twilight stammered.

“Because I was afraid of what you might think of me, if you were to know that this is what I have become. I was afraid that you might fear and/or abandon me if you were to know.”

“But Markus, you know that we don’t care which form you are in, as long as you are you!” Twilight said.

“Yes, I know that, which is why I found the strength to actually show myself again.” Markus said, leaning down and giving both of them another kiss. “And now that I’ve done it, I don’t know why I was ever afraid.”

“Yeah, that was pretty stupid of you. I can’t wait to see Applejack’s face when she sees that you came back, though!” Rainbow said.

“Speaking of which, I prepared a little something and I need your help with that…” Markus said, instructing them on his plan.

---

“I need you to…” Markus said, before letting a cloud of his smoke blind the four mares in front of him and when it was gone, he had changed back into his human form. “… give me a warm welcoming hug!” He finished, letting himself slump down on a second couch that he had materialized behind him.

He sat down right between Twilight and Rainbow, who were already sitting on the couch and who were eager to be the first to follow his order.

“W-wait, M-Markus?” Rarity asked in disbelief.

“Yes, it is me. It has been far too long, hasn’t it?” He answered her.

“YAY, Markus is back!!” Pinkie screamed, jumping onto him and wrapping him in a tight hug and slowly, the remaining three joined in as well.

Their hug held for a few minutes and after it dissolved, Markus got the same questions from them as he did from Rainbow and Twilight. He knew this would happen, though and he found that it was the least he should do to tell them the whole story as well, including that he was Prince Mortis.

“So, you’ve been here this entire time, but you didn’t show yourself? Wow, that sounds… weird.” Pinkie said.

“That actually sounds weird comin’ from you, Pinkie.” Applejack remarked. “Still, ah have t’ agree with ya. This wasn’t yer best idea, Markus.”

“Indeed and speaking of ideas: there is one idea that has been floating around in my head since even before the war had begun.”

He slipped off the couch and knelt down before it, while holding Rainbow’s and Twilight’s hoof in either hand. He then produced two golden ribbons from his pockets and bound them into a bow around either hoof.

“Twilight, Rainbow, do you want to marry me?” He then asked.

The words hit like a magic spell, as as soon as he spoke them, everypony went completely silent. Rainbow’s and Twilight’s faces immediately went alight with joy and they visibly were about to just say yes on the spot, but then something made their faces drop. A bad memory that had burned itself into their heads. They both shared a glance, before they apologetically looked down to Markus.

“Markus, I… we are sorry, but… we can’t accept, at least not now…” Twilight said. Her friends immediately drew in a shocked breath at that.

“It’s just… you know… there was this fake Markus and… and we really want to believe that you’re the real one, promise, but… we can’t. At least not yet.” Rainbow finished.

Markus’s face didn`t waver one bit and when they had given their answer, he let his head drop forward.

“To say that this doesn’t hurt would be a blatant lie. It hurts, a lot.” He lifted his head up again and was smiling brightly at both of them. “And yet, I am glad. I am glad that you’ve learned from your mistake and I see this as… sort of a payback for the stunt I’ve pulled for the past year. Also, I am immortal now, so I can safely say that you can take your time, I can wait.” He said, giving them a brave smile, though it was uncharacteristically obvious that he was hiding pain behind it. “Now, how about we go home?” He offered and the others agreed immediately.

---

“So you actually decided to ditch the disguise, huh? Was about time, It was slowly getting difficult to hide my knowledge, you know?” Mystic said, when the party arrived back at Twilight’s Castle.

“Wait, what? You knew?!”

“Yep, I knew. Why so shocked, Twilight? Don’t you think that I would know? I mean, he’s our commander again, that should’ve been enough of a clue for you. Oh, by the way, the whole of Alpha company knew this.” Mystic said.

“The whole Alpha Company?!” Twilight repeated disbelieveingly.

“Yep. Princess Luna and Princess Celestia also knew.” Mystic continued.

“Really?! Oh dear goddess…” Twilight brought a hoof to her face and groaned into it. “Is there anypony else that knew?”

“Uhh…” Applejack raised her hoof. “Ah kinda did…”

Twilight immediately spun around and looked wide-eyed at her friend. “You knew?! HOW?!”

“Yeah, uhh… remember that whole Hydra thing? Y’know, when the Solar Guard wanted to ‘save’ us?”

A shudder ran down Twilight’s and Mystic’s backs. “Y-yeah, I do… sadly.”

“Yea, ah actually died there an’ Markus is the alicorn of death now, so he was the one who actually brought me back t’ life. He had me swear to not tell anypony though.” Applejack finished.

“Oh, so you never managed to keep a secret for long, but this one you manage to keep?!” Rainbow butted in.

“Ah actually just went lucky that y’all never asked…” Applejack said.

“Oh…”

Author's Note:

Anyone of you played X3? Yeah, weird that I remembered that from this chapter, isn't it?
Well yeah, anyways: Markus and the Gang are back together, yay. Is this the end of the story? No. We're close, but not there yet, so stay tuned for the next chapter. :3

Comments

[Ryan_606]

It's about damn time

[Munro]

this almost feels like a good ending :D

[Fireeaters]

It finally pays off

[Night_Striker]

lovely story now waiting for the next one