It's Called 'Living'

by appendingfic

Last Dance

GODS NEVER WEEP
Terry Pratchett, “Reaper Man”

~~~

The sun was dying, red and swollen and fading with every passing hour. It was just as well, as there wasn’t anypony left to enjoy it, anyway. Three figures stood on a craggy peak, where a palace had stood, millennia ago.

At last, one of them spoke. “Are you ready?”

“No,” another replied peevishly. “An eternity of peace and harmony? It doesn’t sound much like a paradise to me. Why can’t I just keep things going along for a while more?”

“The end will come, Discord, no matter how you wish otherwise. Struggling against it will only make the moment more painful.” A dark equine figure leaned to the second speaker, a strange amalgamation of parts that looked like it shouldn’t be able to stand. The second, Discord, weathered the affectionate touch, presumably because no other creature had existed for close to a thousand years.

“Well, maybe, but sitting here waiting for it seems like a waste of time. I could-” Discord broke off and glanced back to the dark pony. “Well, or...you’re right. This is boring. At least there’ll be other ponies to pester in the afterlife.”

The first, a pale pony, interjected. “Not too harshly, Discord. It’s meant to be a good place to be.”

“Oh, don’t worry, Celestia. I’ll be a good little abomination, I promise.” Discord rolled his eyes at the dark pony. She snickered.

“This isn’t a time for joking, Luna,” Celestia said sternly. “It’s serious.”

“We had plenty of laughs over the millennia,” Luna, the dark pony, protested. “I think it’s perfectly acceptable to have them now. If Pinkie Pie were here, she’d have thrown a party.”

“Yes,” Discord said wistfully. “Do you remember that last one? I’m pretty sure it was a going-away party. She seems the type to have picked up on the tradition. Shame nopony else noticed the guest of honor; it might have been less awkward.”

That brought a snort from Celestia. “Okay. Fine. Still, I don’t think we’ve got much time left, for laughs or otherwise.”

Luna nodded, and stared at the swiftly-fading light of the sun. “Well. It’s been fun, everypony. More than I’d hoped.”

“And you two aren’t nearly as uptight as I always thought,” Discord added.

“I’m...glad I knew you two,” Celestia said.

“Do I need to wait for the rest of the goodbyes, or are we done?”

The Pale Horse smiled weakly at them when they turned to see her behind them. She even waved. “Celestia. Luna. Discord. Are you ready?”

“No, I’m just dying to hang around an empty universe with nothing to do,” Discord drawled. “Come on, let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

“Just one moment,” the Pale Horse said, and focused for a moment. A pale blue unicorn appeared next to the nigh-immortals. She shook herself, scowling at the Pale Horse.

“I told you to warn me before you do things like that - your highnesses!” Trixie Lulamoon froze. “I...Trixie would have dressed herself better if she’d expected to be meeting your eminences...and yourself,” she added gracefully to Discord.

“There’s no need for formality, Trixie,” the Pale Horse said gently. “You’re to be travel companions. They are dying today, and that means it’s time for you to go.”

Trixie’s elegant expression froze and reformed into a furious rictus in a moment. She stalked to the pale pony, eyes blazing. “You cannot do this! I told you, I promised you I would stick around forever. Not just until you tired of me, or until-”

“Trixie.” The Pale Horse’s voice was quiet, and even, but still fell like tombstones. “This is the end. I am taking Celestia, and Luna, and Discord. There is nopony after them. It is the end of the Duty, and that, by definition, is forever. I...cannot thank you enough for all you have done for me. You have given me more than I could have ever imagined, and...no matter what, no matter that I must say good-bye to you now, it was worth it.”

Tears gathered in the Pale Horse’s eyes, and Trixie herself seemed to be fighting against them, as Death stepped forward to nuzzle her delicately. “You will always be in my memories and my heart. But the time has come for all of you to go.”

“Nuh-uh,” Discord said. “Not dressed like this. This is the end of everything. We ought to go out looking like ourselves.”

Luna gave a small smile at that. “Yes.” The alicorns stretched their wings and seemed to fold outward, growing and shifting until their appearances reflected the powers they embodied. Flame and growth, the creative force that nurtured the planet. Darkness and chill, the passion and emotion that drove others to create.

Discord’s draconequus form melted back into the madness that made up the true embodiment of chaos, the shifting form and twisting colors that would have driven a lesser creature mad. But the alicorns were as strange and powerful as he, the Pale Horse had visited stranger creatures in her time, and Trixie was already dead.

The Pale Horse nodded, and stretched out her raven wings, the night-colored feathers shaped of night and the inevitability of the coming darkness. She had spent untold ages shaped like a pony, because Death is not something most can gaze upon. But she was Death, a fragment of Azrael, a creature shaped of night and of a shape beyond description. It was right that at the end, she should face it as her own form.

The wings could span the universe, stronger than steel or spider silk, but gentle enough to cradle a soul. Death stretched these wings around the last wayward souls of the world and carried them on to their destination.

As she did, the sun died, the world cooled, and slowly, the universe began its journey to the end of time.

Comments

[Thorlol]

Hello Andrew Hussie, been making children with George RR Martin again, have you?

[Evergrand Storyteller]

No likes, no dislikes, now aren't you a clean slate

[HeroPonyx]

2148262 Hello, idiot. I don't know who "Andrew Hussie" is, but this isn't him.

[Thorlol]

2148435
Hello culturally impaired person, Andrew Hussie is the creator of the Webcomic Homestuck, which is famous having over half it's characters being dead. As for George RR Martin, he created A Song of Ice and Fire, commonly called A Game of Thrones. The supposedly main character was killed off halfway through the first book.

I meant it as a sarcastic comment about how everyone is supposed to die.

[HeroPonyx]

2148451 Whoops. My mistake. I'm not a part of the Homestuck fandom so I didn't know. Sorry again.

[Valhuir]

This, THIS is the kind of fic about death I like. Not grimdark bloodandguts, but the heartwarming stories about a life lived, and the gentle psychopomp that opens the door to the next life.