Chapter 13 - The Funeral
Celestial Year 996 AB
Applejack didn't really know how to feel.
When she heard the news that Light Flow's mother had passed away, she was sad of course. But her first thought hadn't been of the recently departed, it had been of her strange friend.
Light was... an interesting pony to be around.
Was interesting a good word for it? Maybe distant was better?
She just didn't know. He was just...
He always seemed so sad about something.
She didn't really blame him though. From what she had seen, he lived a pretty sad life. Always alone, always trotting off somewhere to 'read'.
That's what he was always doing, reading. He had once tried to share his 'books' with her, but....
Those things were the most horrible reading she had ever seen.
She had no idea how he read those things all the time. They were so depressing, she had crawled into bed and slept for a whole day! Of course Granny didn't like that, and then she had to do a bunch of chores. So basically, it was all those books' fault.
They were so terrible she had even begun to suspect that he wasn't really reading them, and that they were just an excuse to get away from her.
Which was pretty much why she had stuck around in the first place.
When she had met him all those years ago, she had really just felt bad for him. He had bumped his head on something, and seemingly just wandered to the library. She had been there picking up something for Big Macintosh, some sort of poetry book.
She had noticed the poor thing just standing around in the entrance, and after confirming that he was injured, she had done exactly what Granny had told her was polite. She had taken him to the farm and wrapped up the bump on his head and sent him home.
She hadn't given him much more thought. Just a quiet stranger who she had helped once.
But then she had seen him at school. And he was just sitting there all alone, reading those horrible books. Looking like he didn't even belong in the world around him.
......
She really didn't know how they were still friends.
But none of that was important right now.
Right now it was time for a funeral.
The funeral was a small affair. It was held in the Town Hall, since they didn't have a church. Granny always thought that was 'shameful' for some reason. She had been petitioning for a while now to have one built, but the mayor always said there 'weren't enough funds.'
The tall wooden walls had big black banners hung all over, and a sad tune drifted crackily out of a gramophone in the corner.
Not many ponies came, just her family and a few well-wishers. The only ponies she recognized were the librarian and some of the local vendors. But there was one pony whose absence spoke volumes.
Light Flow wasn't there.
From where she was seated next to Granny in the front, she could see with absolute certainty that the quiet brown pony was nowhere to be seen. The black seats set up in rows were only about a third of the way filled up, but Light wasn't in any of them.
She bit her lip as the Mayor walked out to stand in front of the closed black coffin at the front of the room. Where could he be? He was going to miss the funeral at this rate...
The ceremony started with little fanfare.
The Mayor spoke first. She said a few words about the departed, but not much since she hadn't known her personally. Then she opened the floor for anypony to speak.
One by one, some ponies came up to say things about the deceased. She bowed her head as she listened to the teary goodbyes and the heartfelt condolences. She hadn't really known Light's mother very well at all, just a few passing words whenever she went to go see her friend.
Speaking of her friend, he was still nowhere to be seen.
Eventually, ponies stopped coming up to speak, and the Mayor made a last call for words.
She looked over at her Granny beside her. She had her head bowed in reverence, and was speaking silent prayers under her breath.
She took a deep breath and stood up. She made her way to the front of the room, next to the closed coffin with the dead pony inside.
Her eyes might have lingered there for longer than was necessary.
She reached the front of the room and looked out at the mostly empty chairs. It was so sad that there were so few ponies here.
It was all so sad. So sad.
So familiar.
She opened her mouth to speak.
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That had been two days ago.
And she still hadn't seen Light Flow.
After the funeral, she had gone by his house. He wasn't there. She went inside to check, in case he just wasn't answering her. She had gone into that freaky black room of his, and his freaky black bed's covers were still made. She guessed he hadn't been home at all.
She hadn't known where else to look at the time, so she had gone home to wait it out. But she had an idea now.
His mother's burial had taken place yesterday, and she had been buried in Ponyville Graveyard, as per her request.
She had never gone to the Graveyard before, since all of the Apple family was buried on the farm, so she had to ask directions.
It was a relatively small graveyard. Ponyville had never had many residents, and while she didn't know a lot about pegasi burial habits, she did know they didn't enjoy the thought of being entombed. Apparently the thought of spending their eternity underground was 'horrible' or something.
She never understood it, there was too much of a cultural gap. She couldn't say that she loved the idea of being buried, but it's not as if she was averse to the idea. She just didn't like thinking about dying. Who did?
A frown grew on her face. She bet Light did.
Her thoughts had strayed at some point. She couldn't remember what she had been talking about.
She knew she needed to find Light Flow.
The pony that she knew was so much like her, in all those ways he was so unlike her.
She arrived at the menacing iron gate to the Ponyville Graveyard.
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He was there. Of course he was there.
She had found him sitting in front of his mother's grave, a plain white gravestone with no special features whatsoever.
He looked awful. Really truly awful.
That weird coat he always wore was ragged and torn in a few places. She could see specks of dirt on it, and guessed his fur didn't look much better. He wore his hood up, so she couldn't actually see anything besides the strange black coat.
He was hunched over silently in front of the white slab, looking tiny in comparison.
Applejack really, truly did not know how to feel.
She licked her lips, before admonishing herself. She really didn't want to start picking up Light's habits.
"Um" She surprised herself with her voice. She hadn't even been planning to say anything, but it just sort of fell out.
Well, she figured she should back that 'um' up with something.
"Hey sugarcube. How're you doing? I've been pretty worried about you... Uhm... How come you didn't come to the funeral?"
He had been silent until she said the word 'funeral', and a small sigh emanated out from the hooded figure at the mention.
A hollow, broken voice echoed out from behind the coat, and it sent shivers down her spine. It sounded as if he hadn't had a drink in days. Had he been eating? Where had he been?!
"Funeral...?"
Applejack smiled, even though she knew he couldn't see it. Maybe it was just to make herself feel better about the impending difficult conversation.
"Yeah, sugarcube. Your.. uh.. your mom's funeral... It was two days ago, and you didn't show up, sugarcube. Where were y'all?"
She swore she could hear the creaking of bones as the figure shifted slightly. The ghostly voice echoed off the gravestone in front of them.
"What would have been the point...?"
She started at the response. The.... point...?!
"What'd'you mean the point?! It was yer mom's funeral!"
Light turned toward her a little more, and she caught a glimpse of matted brown fur.
"Applejack."
Her eyes widened.
Had he just called her....?
He had never.....
"Why is it that you hang around me so much?"
Applejack was still trying to process his use of her actual name, so her mind connected to her mouth and automatically blurted out what it found first.
The honest truth.
"Pity."
She gasped immediately, and tried to cover up her reckless response.
"Uh! T-That's not what I-"
"I see."
The figure creaked as it stood from where it was hunching, and it turned to face her even as she tried to stammer out an explanation.
His voice was like a whisper, but it rang loud all the same.
"It's okay, Applejack. It was obvious, really. I don't mind."
"Because I'm going to make everything better. I'm going to fix it."
"But there's something I need you to do. Something important."
He hobbled over to where Applejack was standing, petrified.
She didn't know why, she couldn't explain it for the life of her. Every cell in her body was screaming something at her as the shadowy figure hobbled closer. She tried to deny it, but she knew all the same.
Applejack was afraid.
Light's unnaturally red eyes shone through the rim of his hood, and she could see dark purple smoke trailing from the edges.
"I want you to leave me alone, Applejack."
"Don't talk to me anymore."
"Don't come by my house anymore."
"Don't even think about me anymore."
"I don't ever want to see you again."
"Do you understand me?"
Applejack couldn't breathe.
She couldn't understand what Light was saying to her, it was like he was speaking another language in that quiet voice of his.
He was so close to her now, and she could taste his scent on the air. He smelled like...!
Her mouth seemed to be devoid of all moisture, and she smacked her lips a few times to try and muster up the strength for a reply.
But before she could, she felt a horrible feeling in her chest. A terrible, rending feeling deep in her inner being. It felt like she was dying.
She wanted to get away..!
She heard that voice again, so quiet. So still.
"Now that you understand, you can do something else for me."
He leaned in close enough that she could smell the same scent on his breath, and all Applejack could see were those big red eyes, trailing that purple smoke.
"Run."
Applejack ran.
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Light Flow was fine.
Light Flow was better than fine actually.
He made his way away from the graveyard feeling better than he ever had.
Sure his head hurt and his eyes itched, but that didn't matter. So many things were opening up to him now.
He was finally rid of all distractions, and he could truly begin his work for the first time in his life.
He knew what had to be done.
He had a box to dig up.
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Well, looks like the slim chances of preventing Light from staying away from a good pony is just about gone and that he had let himself be poisoned by the book that he got and has severed any and all attachment that he had from his old life. I wonder what what happened to his mother was is a disease, accident, or was it Light experimentation with necromancy that sucked the life out of her by accident? Next is why would he want to raise his own mother having your parent nagging for the rest of your afterlife sounds like a pain. I wonder what happened to Light health and appearances has degenerated so much? I would have thought that who ever kept sent him the book assuming that point is for 'good' would have been better off to just neuter his necromantic potential by taking an active role in stearing him away from it while he was still mailable, without needed to kill him. I wonder if Light would like to 'gift' AJ with brining her parents back to life again. I wonder why he now thinks that now nothing his holding him back anymore what got him, how did his mind got so warped in just two years.
I'm super curious if he ends up using necromancy more for helping others than hurting.
I always think of necromancy as being able to use death however you want. Preventing death and healing people is almost always some of the first things that come up when I think of necromancy. I'm assuming most people think of necromancy as a bad thing but it's really hard for me to not think of all the positives of necromancy. I hope Light Flow ends up helping others and not being a super evil stereotypical necromancer. Although I do think he'll get a lot worse before he gets better. Currently the only bad thing he has done is use magic on Applejack and soon to be graverobbing? (I think). Messing around with dead things isn't that bad, I don't really count studying dead things as a bad thing.
Dammit.
Classic rookie mistake.
Sad, angry, gonna try and stuff a departed soul into a body that gave up the capacity to hold one without chaining it with dark magic...assuming Mom actually ends up in there and not something worse.
This never ends well.
if and when he becomes a villain i bet applejack will blame herself, she abandoned a friend, and look what he became
Aw, so it really was his mother that died...
Anyway, actually glad to get a change of perspective for once to see how Applejack feels about him. I get that most people dislike it when a story changes from a character's perspective but if it's rare moments like these then I feel like it's good for the story.
I just hope he's up to the task to finally do some necromancy... Been a while since it was last mentioned/used and we don't really have a good read on how much progress he's made with the books, or if the Seer had sent anymore yet for him to learn from. :/
Ironic that Applejack, the future Element of Honesty, tried to make friends with a very dishonest colt. He's spent a lot of his life lying to himself.
Making her death a forgone conclusion is something very... interesting. Normally, that'd be hard to pull off, making her death known ahead of time, and making her death meaningful.
That is to say, you've done a very good job.
10866667
He needed some reason to actually do necromancy despite being against the laws of both pony and nature. A dead loved one is one of the classics.
Estoy seguro que si hubiera sido Rainbow Dash, Ella no hubiera corrido, como la pegaso leal que era... pero tampoco puedo culparla, son niños a la vista de los pony's, asi que realmente debia de haber estado aterrorizada
Wow, really hitting me with the feels. Go get em Light Flow! Become the anti hero you were always meant to be!
He smelled like bunny.
Very nice. Even with little to no screen time I'm still sad she's dead. Well written!