TCB: The Jig Of Life

by Madrigal Baroque

Where The Crossroads Meet

And Harmony remembered.

A total wave of long-suppressedmemories overwhelmed her dimming senses, with far more force and fury than the rush of engulfing bay water.

She remembered the moonlit willow grove–Luna's grove–under an impossibly starry sky, where she'd found herself after escaping from an oblivion of nothingness by the sheer force of her own will.

The Princess was standing before her, bathed in starlight, cloaked in her own soft luminance.

And Harmony relived the memory, as though it were happening now.

"It was my thought we should speak, thee and I."

"Where am I? What is happening?" Eun-sook swallowed hard and asked the question she scarcely dared to voice. "Am I dead?"

Luna smiled gently. "As I said before, thou'rt in my domain. The realm of night, and of dreams. Thou hast a choice to make, though it seems thou hast already chosen, and well."

She sobered. "As to thy last question…at this moment, whilst in my realm, thou'rt in a state of grace that cannot linger long. To thy old life, thy human existence, thou'rt most assuredly dead. Park Eun-sook hath departed the mortal realm, and cannot return to it."

Horrified, Eun-sook stared at Luna in stark realization. "That's why I'm here with you…isn't it?...I…you're the Pale Mare, the psychopomp, who comes to collect...I really am dead." She cursed in a fluid magma-hot stream of Korean, never mind that she was in the presence of an otherworldly princess with godlike powers. "I had one week more," she finished, her voice shaking with anger. She felt cheated. "Six days and I would have gotten a new, young body."

"So thy desire to become one of our little ponies hath not abated?"

"What do you think I went to the Bureau for?" Eun-sook pounded at the marble surface beneath her. "My daughters abandoned me. My grandchildren probably don't know I exist. My son became a drug lord, my husband…" She trailed off, choking back sudden tears, tears she refused to shed. Even in a dream.

Luna's eyes shine with compassion. "He was what is called a Blackmesh operative, was he not?"

"So was I. That's how we met. Against all the rules, we fell in love, and when I got pregnant I was allowed to retire, in exchange for Tae-yang pledging a lifetime of service."

"And it ended not well for either of them, thy son and thy husband."

"Il-nam earned his death. He went against the West Coast hierarchy in a bid to become a tin pot dictator of his own little exclave…and the Families sent the Blackmesh to sort them out." Eun-sook swiped at the persistent wetness in her eyes. "I don't think he even knew that his father was one of the squad, and when he raised his gun…Tae-yang's instincts took over. Kill or be killed." She looked up into the velvet darkness above. "Tae-yang came home, told me what had happened, then walked outside and blew his brains out." She lost the battle with her angry grief and let the tears fall, but she didn't sob. She would not. Her son had been a fool, her husband a coward. Her daughters had abandoned her, and she was alone.

"Alone thou art not," Luna reminded her. "There are those who care most deeply for thee, and who would sore mourn thy loss." On delicate ebon hooves Luna walked to the edge of the dias, bending her lovely head to look down at the surrounding pool. "Come and see."

Hesitantly Eun-sook rose and moved to the Moon Princess's side. The water below was black and smooth, with no ripples or waves to disturb the surface. Suddenly it began to glow, like a vidscreen switched on, and Eun-sook saw a long corridor whose walls and features were at once familiar. People and ponies were moving back and forth, mostly in one direction. "That's the clinic," she remarked.

"Just so." Luna nodded. "Now, attend."

There was some kind of commotion at the far end of the corridor. Suddenly a familiar figure broke through the crowd, pelting down the corridor, shoving others aside. It was Tib, and she was crying, nearly hysterical.

"Tib!" Eun-sook leaned down close to the water's glassy surface. "What's wrong with her? What's happening?"

The view moved into the reception area, and Tib rushed to the desk, slamming her hands on the desktop hard enough to make Beth jump in her seat. In her face Tib howled "She daid!"

"Who's what?" Eun-sook had trouble at times deciphering Tib's accent, which always thickened when she was agitated. "She did…who did what?" She swallowed hard. "Is she talking about…me?"

Then she heard a word that Tib's Cajun parle didn't obscure. Her own name.

"Eun-sook, she be layin' back dere in her bunk stone col' daid! She passed in de night an' I never knew not'in', me!"

" She found me? She found me dead in bed–oh, Tib!" Eun-sook shook her head. "Please, don't cry! I'm right here!"

"She cannot hear us," Luna said quietly. "There are others to look after her, as we cannot."

Eun-sook looked down at the image of a wailing Tib being led away by the receptionist. "Tib! Oh, Tib, grandchild, I love you! I love you so much!" She began to sob. "Please…please don't forget me…"

"None shall forget thee, dear one. Look sharp now, there be yet more to see."

"I…I can't…I don't want to–"

"MOVE!!"

That was not Luna. Nor was it Tib. Startled, Eun-sook looked to see a wild-eyed, frantic Roslyn Pastern shoving a gurney into the already agitated cluster of onlookers who parted to let her pass. It was that, or be run over. The doctor's assistant was hurrying after her, carrying a gray satchel.

The point of view followed the pair into the room Eun-sook shared with Tib. A small, somehow diminished figure lay in the bed–lying very, very still.

Grim-faced, Pastern leaned over her. She went through the motions of checking for a pulse, for pupil reaction, but the outcome was never really in doubt.

"What a damn shame," Lynn muttered, shaking her head. "I'm so sorry, Ros."

Pastern straightened up, draping her stethoscope around her shoulders. Her brow created as she stood staring at Eun-sook's body.

Eun-sook tore her attention away from the visions in the water and glared furiously at the starlit goddess beside her. "Why are you showing me this?" She completely forgot she was speaking to a being who could destroy her utterly with one thought. That, or in her grief and fury she was simply past caring. "I already know I'm dead. Why did you show me my granddaughter's pain? Why are you making me look at my own dead body? Does it give you some kind of sick pleasure to torment me?"

Luna seemed completely unruffled by the verbal assault. "Thou hast a choice to make, Park Eun-sook. Watch a bit longer. See it well, and gain understanding."

"Not a chance. I don't want to see any more."

From the water came Lynn's voice. "Doctor? Ros?"

Eun-sook refused to look. She didn't want to look. She looked.

She saw Pastern jerk to life. "Help me get her on the gurney."1

Nonplussed, Lynn did as she was told. "Are we taking her to the morgue? Shouldn't we wait for the morning detail to clear the hallway and–"

"We're taking her to Conversion," Pastern snapped. "There might still be a chance."

"How? She's dead, probably for hours!"

"No time to explain. Let's get her to the Pony Room. Stat!"

The gurney trundled out of the room, and the scene faded into the water's black stillness.

Eun-sook kept watching, but there was nothing more to see. The feed had been terminated.

"Now is the place where the crossroads meet," Luna stated. "Now is the time for thee to choose which path to take."

Eun-sook looked at her. "You mean I can go back if I want?"

"Not as thou wert. Howsomever…"

And at last Eun-sook understood. "So I can die as a human…or live as a pony."

"Those are thy choices."

Eun-sook met the Princess's glowing eyes. Her anger had faded. What remained was the steely resolve that had brought her to the Conversion Bureau in the first place. "I made my choice the day I packed my bag and walked away from my husband's cooling corpse." With absolute conviction, she repeated the words her essence had shouted at the dark. "I want to live."

"Then thou shalt live." Luna bent down to her. "To spare thee a troubled mind, of this encounter thou shalt remember but little…till thou dost gain the needed perspective."

"Don't worry about troubling my mind," Eun-sook snapped. "And it's like I could forget you showing me my death if I wanted to!"

Luna smiled and kissed Eun-sook's brow, just above and between her eyes. "Fare well, Park Eun-sook, till again we meet."

***

With that fleeting kiss, Eun-sook had forgotten all but the bare beginnings of her dream. The recovered memory, fresh now in her mind, gave her needed strength, renewed determination. Once more, she fought her way back from the darkness. She felt warm breath against her wet muzzle. Someone, somepony, was talking in low, frantic tones. "She never went below–she–oh, Sacre Luna, I don't think she's breathing–"

Harmony inhaled deeply–or tried to; something was blocking her windpipe. She forced it out and spewed salt water into her granddaughter's face.

Harmony sat up, coughing and spluttering. Madrigal was wearing the same agonized expression she'd had on her human face, running down the hallway screaming "She daid!"

To prove herself very much alive, Harmony cleared her throat and went into full-on Scolding Korean Grandmother Mode™. "Took you long enough!" she rasped. "What you do, go sightseeing? Visit Alcatraz?"

Madrigal burst into tears and flung her long forelegs around Harmony's tiny body. Over her shoulder, Harmony instructed Featherfall to alert those below that the danger had passed. Suddenly she remembered Lilac's blazing tail. Other ponies had been hurt as well–she'd seen Chip limping with a scorched flank. And all the crew members who'd gotten burned, who'd choked on the noxious fumes from the smoke…they would need help. There were two other unicorns on board, but with so many injured they'd all have their hooves full. Suddenly she remembered the herbs she was transporting to grow in Equestria–those awould certainly help. "Then fetch me my saddlebags. I'm going to have a lot of work to do."

When Feather was gone, Harmony wrapped her own forelegs around as much of her granddaughter as she could manage. Softly, she whispered in one half-drooping ear. "Ije modeun geos-i gwaenchanhseubnida. Jalhaess-eo, sonnyeoya."

She had no idea she was speaking Korean, so Madrigal didn't hear how proud Harmony was of her granddaughter.

It didn't matter; everyone, and everypony, was safe.

And just over the horizon, Equestria was waiting.

***

Author's Note:

And now at long last the story is complete.

Only...not quite.

Comments

[Turbotune]

Well that second death here was once again avoided, and it seemed that Luna was interested in then more than what we had thought.
And she remembered all that again? I mean it was not really a surprise, just a bit confused at Luna's action here and the extra roles she played after the conversion. Nice to see the extra background. She knew that she had to stay for someone other than herself.