Chapter 2
Chapter 2
Fluttershy gasped and whirled around, backtrotting as hastily as she could.
“Don’t worry,” soothed the voice of the stranger. “I’m not here to hurt you.”
Fluttershy stopped backing up when two things happened.
The first of these was her rump failing to hit the wall behind her, instead passing directly through it. She let out an “Eek!” and leapt forward into the air, pulling herself back out of the woodwork. It had been the strangest experience, akin to feeling a cold breeze running across her coat... Only she was the cold breeze, or at least that small part of her had been, sliding through the wall as easily as a chill wind through heavy air.
The second thing that happened was that she realized that this newcomer could see and hear her.
“W-who are you?” she inquired fearfully, sniffing. She had always hated it when Rainbow Dash told those ghost stories around the campfire—perhaps now more than ever, as she was in one. One of the most frightening spectres to ever haunt her sky-blue friend’s tales was a monster who wasn’t really a monster at all, wasn’t really anything at all. It was the personification of absence, the embodiment of leaving. The Reaper Pony was that ghostly figure that met souls upon their death, to forever sever them from the land of the living.
The transparent equine before her looked absolutely nothing like the skeletal figure Dash had so gruesomely described, but that didn’t mean it still wasn’t the Reaper Pony simply wearing a disguise. Why the manifestation of Death would need a disguise was beyond her, however.
Perhaps this wasn’t the Reaper Pony after all?
The other pony was just as transparent as Fluttershy was, though the creamy pegasus could tell that the other pony’s coat was, or at least had been, a faded golden color. She stood a little taller than Fluttershy did, though perhaps that was because she wasn’t slouching slightly, unlike the shy pegasus. She was an earth pony, and her mane and tail were a soft rosy color, done up with green bows.
Wait, bows? The other mare looked just as ghostly as Fluttershy now did, so how could something that had never been alive be a part of her appearance as an apparition? Assuming, of course, that she was a ghost too... If not, then perhaps she really was some other, far more sinister entity... What if the Reaper Pony appeared different to all who saw it, and this was simply how it chose to appear to Fluttershy?
“Please, don’t take me away!” Fluttershy begged, doing her best to stay as far away from the other figure as possible without passing through the wall again. “I don’t want to leave my friends yet!”
“Take you away?” the other spirit inquired in a soft, yet firm, voice. “I’m not here to take you anywhere you don’t want to go. In fact, the only reason I’m here at all is to take you where you do want to go.”
“What?” Fluttershy uttered, hope warring in her voice with the last shades of fear.
“I’m, well...” The other equine sighed. “I’m like you are.”
She gestured to the Fluttershy in the bed. The soul that once inhabited the body frowned as she spotted Angel Bunny hugging its pale yellow ear, having given up on his desperate stomping and conceding to emotion. Fluttershy instinctively reached out with a ghostly hoof to comfort the rabbit, having never seen him so miserable before, but drew it back as she realized that it wouldn’t do a thing.
“Only I’ve been around for quite a lot longer,” she went on. “I’ve sort of fallen into the role of welcoming newlydeads around Ponyville, such as yourself, to the Hereafter.”
“So... You’re not the Reaper Pony?” Fluttershy queried, hope winning out in her voice. She tried her best to ignore the ‘newlydead’ comment. Even if that’s exactly what she was, any term with the word ‘dead’ in it was now something she definitely didn’t want to hear.
“The Reaper Pony?” the other spirit echoed, shock dawning on her face before a smile of realization took its place. She laughed slightly, shaking her head in amusement. “Oh, no. Not at all. He’s just too busy with plagues and wars to bother with most domestic deaths.”
“You mean he’s real?!” Fluttershy squeaked.
“Yes, but you probably won’t ever see him,” the spirit claimed. “I’ve never seen him myself. I’ve just heard things from the other ghosts.”
“There are more?” Fluttershy wondered, wiping some of the wetness from her eyes with a hoof. There were more ponies like her? Her mood lifted slightly as she began to ponder how she wouldn’t be as alone as she thought she would be. It... wouldn’t be as good as being with her friends, but at least she wouldn’t be completely ignored for all of eternity.
“Everypony who ever died,” the guide agreed. “They’re milling about the Afterlife somewhere. or, most are. There are those who...” She stared wistfully at the floorboards for a moment. “...Let’s not talk about them. I still haven’t introduced myself, have I? Imagine that; I spend years planning for this one welcoming and when it finally comes I get all off topic...”
“This one welcome?” Fluttershy questioned. “You’ve been waiting for years for... me?”
“Certainly,” the other agreed. “I am Dearly Departed. Although I am sorry we had to meet like this, I am pleased to finally make your acquaintance, Fluttershy.”
Dearly held out a hoof, which Fluttershy uncertainly met with her own. It still felt cold, but she realized she could actually feel the other ghost’s touch.
“Why would you be waiting for me?” Fluttershy wondered, worry creeping up her spine for reasons she couldn’t name. “And how do you know who I am?”
“This is going to sound really creepy,” Dearly Departed admitted sheepishly with a fitting grin. “But when you’re the only constant ghost around Ponyville, when most others take a Portal to the upper levels of the Afterlife, you can get quite bored. To keep me from going mad and going on a haunting spree, like most ghosts do who stay in the Hereafter for too long, I take it upon myself to watch certain ponies. You were one such pony; I’ve watched you grow up ever since you came to Ponyville.”
“You’ve been spying on me?!” Fluttershy gasped.
“Not all the time!” Departed protested. “I watch several ponies at once! I only visited you every once in a while.”
Nevertheless, a cold shiver ran down Fluttershy’s spine at the thought of having been watched by a ghost for pretty much her entire life without ever having known it.
Her life... That prompted her to notice a question that had been sitting in the back of her mind for a few minutes now. She looked at the other ghost, swallowing. “Do... do you know how I died?” She took a quick glance at her dead body, which her animal friends were still mourning over. She carefully examined the paled, slightly discolored skin of her face under her fur, her ethereal eyes running over the unnaturally swollen veins.
Dearly Departed let out a small cough. “No... but...” She stared through her hooves at the floorboards.
A block of ice formed in Fluttershy’s stomach.
“I... I think you were poisoned.” Dearly trotted to the body on the bed and gestured over it with a hoof. “I’ve seen enough deaths to know that somepony’s face doesn’t turn that color, and her veins don’t swell up like that, unless there’s something very toxic in her blood.”
“Poisoned?” Fluttershy echoed, shrinking. Her teal eyes scanned over her body’s face again. That... made sense. But how did it happen? Was it a poisonous plant? The cogs in her head began turning. The night previous, she was out in the Everfree Forest to gather some medicinal herbs. She had been so exhausted by the time she was done that she decided to cut through the forest itself and walk in a straight line back to her house rather than take the cleared pathway. As a pegasus, there was a small deposit of magnetite in her forehead that constantly gave this tiny, almost-unnoticeable tug in the direction of North, so she knew which way her cottage was. She wanted to just get back to her house as quickly as possible instead of taking the winding route, and flop down on her bed without a care in the world. She would have just flown, but she was just too tired... Did she get scratched by something on the way there and forget to treat the wound? Was that something poisonous?
She gasped quietly to herself. Did she leave the poison to fester all night? How could she have been so careless? Overwhelmed with a desire for closure, she immediately galloped to her dead body’s side and attempted to throw the sheets off, her eyes scanning for the incriminating wound. She was caught off-guard when her hooves simply moved right through the bedspread, inertia almost causing her to topple over backwards. Regaining her balance, she stared helplessly at the motionless figure.
Dearly Departed seemed to have noticed her efforts. “I think it was either a plant, or maybe somepony who really, really hated you...” Her sympathetic expression flicked to an amused smirk. “Or maybe somepony who was really, really insane.”
It took the old ghost a moment to realize that she had committed a faux pas by playfully mocking Fluttershy’s death so soon after it happened. Her eyes snapped wide open. “Oh... W-wait, I didn’t mean that, I—”
The young spirit had yet to glance at her, her teal eyes locked on the bedspread. “It’s fine,” she dismissed. She had something far more important to think of at the time.
She absent-mindedly noticed that she was stepping into a few of her animal friends, and gingerly lifted her hooves off, although it had no real effect.
She sighed discontentedly before taking a deep breath. She closed her eyes and shook her head softly. So she was... dead. “What now?” she whispered. She couldn’t communicate with anypony that was still living, which meant that she would never be able to talk with her friends again.
Well, actually, she would... several decades from now. But they would have probably forgotten about her by then. It wouldn’t be their fault; that's just what time does to a pony’s memory. At least, that’s what she feared would happen...
She opened her eyes and looked sadly over her shoulder at her only companion. “What do I do now? You... said you greeted ponies who came to a... ‘hereafter?’”
Dearly returned her gaze, soundlessly parking her rump on the floorboards. “Yes, we’re in the Hereafter, one of the seven levels of reality. The Hereafter is the shadow of the Mortal Plane, where the ponies who are still living are. Ponies in the Mortal Plane cannot detect you in any way, shape or form. Well, unless you want them to, and... erm...” She shook her head. “That’s not important. Anyway, there are five more levels, and... Well, most ponies who die eventually end up at the fourth level of them all: the Ethereal Plane.” Her expression brightened. “It’s a gigaaaaaantic city,” she said, emphasizing how big it was by lifting her forehooves in front of her and slowly drawing them apart. “The ponies there literally have all the time in the universe to build and perfect their structures, and more ponies are joining every few days.” She smiled at Fluttershy. “Why don’t you visit? You’ll certainly get a warm welcome.”
The timid pegasus shook her head, pressing her lips together. She rather liked the small town of Ponyville, and she liked living separate from the hustle and bustle even more so. Icy fingers closed around her neck as she recalled the times she and her friends visited the grand city of Canterlot, and how many ponies were milling about. She remembered the Hearth’s Warming Eve play, and the thousands of ponies that stared up at her from the crowd, expecting her to perform perfectly for them.
She closed her eyes and shook her head harder, her neck tilting slightly downwards. “N-no, I’m fine here...” she muttered meekly.
The ghostly earth pony frowned. “Are you sure? There’s a portal not too far from here. It’s like, a five-minute walk. And you won’t meet many dead ponies if you stay here... Like I said, most of them are on the Ethereal Plane.”
“Yes, I-I don’t want to leave...” Fluttershy opened her eyes and scuffed at the floorboards with her hoof. She noticed that it didn’t make any noise. “I...” She wilted, blinking away a tear. “I want to be back with my friends... Is there any way for me to get back to the... uh... Mortal Plane?” She gazed hopefully at her guide. She knew what the answer would be, but she desperately hoped it would be something else.
Dearly Departed stood still for a moment, blinking, before placing a hoof on her chin. “Well... not that I know of. But I guess it might be possible, if there’s a spell to bring back the dead. You’d have to convince a powerful unicorn to cast it on you, and since it’s a little hard to communicate with the living, you may find some difficulty there.”
Fluttershy gasped, her head popping up like a jack in the box. “Hard... but not impossible?”
She received a nod. “Yes, ponies in the Hereafter can communicate with the living... a little bit. But only a little bit. If you speak, your voice is so quiet that it can easily be mistaken for the wind. If you concentrate really hard, you can make physical contact with things.” Dearly Departed swallowed. “The dead have significantly more power at night, and even more if they’re in an area where it’s dark. If you can catch somepony in the dead of night in a place that’s really dark and quiet, you may even be able to speak to them... and they’ll actually hear you.” A cocky smirk formed on her face. “But this tends to scare them, so don’t overdo it.”
Fluttershy nodded absent-mindedly, thoughts and ideas surging through her mind like lightning through a conductor. That’s why Applejack was almost able to hear her earlier! Her chest swelled with excitement and she grinned widely, an epiphany hitting her like a freight train. “I-I can still talk to them!” she whispered in realization, her eyes sparkling.
“Talk to who?” Dearly asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“My friends!” Fluttershy shouted with glee. Well, her definition of shouting, which was more of a stage whisper.
The earth pony laughed. “Ohhhh! Heh heh, yeah, I guess you can...”
Fluttershy took one last somber glance at her dead body, more specifically at the rabbit quietly crying into its fur. She quietly approached it, bending down so her muzzle was right next to the bunny’s ear. “Don’t worry, Angel. I’ll get Twilight to fix this,” she said sweetly. She smiled as Angel’s eyes opened, and he propped himself up to glance at Fluttershy’s cold, still face with a perplexed expression. She giggled into his ear, causing it to twitch before he looked around in confusion.
Fluttershy’s smile grew with the hope that she’d be able to assuage her Angel Bunny’s fears soon, and she merrily trotted over to the wall she had nearly passed through earlier. She threw one last appreciative glance over her shoulder at Dearly Departed, who waved at her.
“Have a good one!” the earth pony chimed. “I’ll be here when you get back. Oh, and though you shouldn’t see any, just in case you do, try to stay away from the Shadows.”
With that, Fluttershy took a deep breath and bent her limbs, before launching herself into the wooden wall. Just like before, she passed right through it, the strange sensation of being turned into wind permeating her entire body. Soon she was on the other side, several feet above the ground. Spreading her wings, she soared towards the large tree-library in the distance.
She wasn't through yet.
In her giddiness, she hardly noticed the blue streak that rushed past just below her.
* * *
“...and so, with Alketra runes used in conjunction with Sillith’s Fourth Law, I have discovered that wearing a small phial filled with your own blood around your neck does indeed increase your magical capabilities, but only by approximately four percent. Plus, it’s morbid.”
Multiple sophisticated ponies voiced their approval, politely applauding the purple mare who stood proudly in front of a projector screen, poking various locations on slideshow screens with a long wooden rod.
A particular white pony’s face was a few shades greener than the rest of her body. “Twilight sure does have some... interesting facts in her book,” she said stiltedly, looking down at the hoof covering her stomach. “I’m... I’m just going to—mmf... excuse myself...” She then moved as quickly and quietly as possible to the library’s restroom. Thankfully, the door blocked the noises of retching coming from inside.
Pinkie looked at her wrist. “It’s been like, forty-six minutes.” The corners of her mouth sunk. “Yeah, this is super-duper booorriiiing. I thought it would be fun-a-fun-fun, but Twilight’s big lecture thingy is taking forever!”
“Ah think it’s interestin’. Ah never thought that Denetra runes didn’t work right ‘less you drew ‘em in four-by-four squares with one overlappin’ the four in the center.” Applejack received two strange looks—one a shocked expression by Pinkie, and the other a very confused gander by Rarity, who had just returned from emptying the contents of her stomach. Her green eyes flicked to each of her friends in turn. “What?”
“You’re interested in magic, Applejack? But... you’re an earth pony.” Rarity gazed at her farmer friend expectantly.
Applejack scrunched up her face. “So? Earth ponies can do magic too. It’s just, y’know... earthy.” She waved a hoof around.
“What do you mean?” Rarity blinked.
Applejack smirked. “How do you think me n’ the Apple family are able to grow apple trees despite what kinda land we’re usin’? Half of our East Field is actually solid bedrock, but there are fully-grown trees there.” An orange hoof gestured to Pinkie. “And how d’ya think Pinkie here seems to teleport when we ain’t lookin’? And walk on walls n’ ceilings? And pull things outta thin air? Ah mean, she’s better at earth pony magic than I am, so ya’ll won’t see me doin’ none-a that any time soon.”
Rarity blinked twice, before turning her head to the party pony, who was revelling in the small amount of attention. “Oh... I never thought about that,” she admitted, a white hoof resting on her chin.
Amongst their private conversation and Twilight giving her lecture, none of them noticed a particular ghostly pegasus flying right through the wall into the room. Well, actually, they wouldn’t have noticed her anyway.
* * *
Fluttershy smiled brightly at the sight of her friends, the hope in her heart flaring all the more fiercely at the prospect that she might actually soon be physically with them again. After all, Twilight was the most magical unicorn she’d ever met—she was Princess Celestia’s own student, for crying out loud—and if she already knew all this arcane knowledge about magic, then surely she knew a spell to undo death... Right?
Fluttershy gulped, fighting down the cold doubt that caused the hope in her heart to flicker.
Now the only problem was figuring out how to get Twilight’s attention.
Wait a minute, Fluttershy mentally realized. Do I really want to interrupt my friend’s lecture at her first book signing?
Sometimes it was very cumbersome when you thought about others more than yourself. But then again, wouldn’t contacting a spirit in the Afterlife impress Twilight’s guests more than anything she was explaining in her presentation? Lectures were all well and good, but wouldn’t they really think her the most magical unicorn in all of Equestria if they saw such powerful magic in action?
And then if Twilight did manage to bring Fluttershy back to life, then surely she would be the most magical unicorn of all time! Fluttershy simply hoped that the fact that she had never heard of any other unicorn performing such a spell wasn’t a sign that such a spell didn’t exist. Then again, even if such a spell was nonexistent, Twilight could write a brand new spell... Right?
“Stop worrying, Fluttershy,” the newlydead whispered to herself. “You’ll never be alive again if you don’t at least try!”
Careful not to pass through any of the ponies listening to the lecture, as it was still rather disconcerting to pass through a living being, the creamy pegasus trotted up to the podium. She didn’t want to wait until it was dark out to attempt contact, and the only light in the library was the sunlight streaming through the windows, so there wasn’t anything she could attempt to make things darker herself.
Mustering her courage against the fear that this wouldn’t work, she hopped up on the podium and stared directly into Twilight’s face. It had worked with Applejack, so it had to work with Twilight; to make herself actually heard, she’d just have to try even harder.
Taking a deep breath, Fluttershy gave Twilight a face-full of her best Stare and prepared to shout with all her might.
Her mouth opened, and whatever passed for air in the Afterlife sped past Fluttershy’s ghostly vocal chords and right to Twilight’s ears when—
The door to the library slammed open. Fluttershy’s scream—the loudest she’d ever utilized, alive or dead—was drowned out by the deafening THWACK of the door striking the library’s wooden wall. Everypony turned to look at the cause of such an interruption, including a severely agitated Fluttershy, to see a haggard blue pony struggling to breathe through wracking sobs.
“Rainbow Dash?” Fluttershy wondered aloud. “I thought she was still here at the lecture... Where has she...” Her eyes widened. “Oh, no... Oh, no, no, no...”
The ghostly pegasus’ oldest friend shuffled into the room, barely able to walk, much less fly. Her wings hung limply at her sides as tears streamed down her cheeks. Finally, she collapsed in a heap in the middle of the room.
Everypony moved back to give her room to breathe, though the wracking cries seemed to be making that increasingly impossible.
“Rainbow Dash!” Twilight gasped, rushing from the podium to her fallen friend, the rest of her friends joining her in an instant. “What’s wrong? What happened? Where did you go?”
“I... went to... check...” was all the distraught pegasus could cough out. “But... but...”
“What is it?” Twilight pleaded, the extreme worry in her voice echoed on the faces of all of her friends.
“It’s okay!” Fluttershy yelled over the din at the top of her transparent lungs, already knowing it was in vain. Her voice was lost in the general murmur and Rainbow’s sobs. “I’m still here! I can come back! I-I’m—”
“Dead!” the multicolored flier screamed. “Fluttershy—she’s dead!!”
. . .
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2119772 It's food for the mind.
2119772
Midnight? Pffft, 5am here in merry ol' England
2119909 iknow that feel mate
I cannot wait for the next chapter, hope it's not gonna get even more sadder...
Stay away from the Shadows!
ORLY?
And Rainbow Dash spills the beans. I wonder how many ponies will recognize poisoning? I mean maybe the doctors but the rest of the Mane 6 probably wouldn't. I mean Twilight reading up on the signs of poisoning almost sounds a bit creepy. Before hand, I mean. Afterwards it would only make sense.
To be perfectly honest... I hate the cover image. It creeps me out. Fluttershy needs eyes.
Love how this story is handled however. A lot of times when authors put information into the story they tend to suddenly go "descriptive" on absolutly everything they can. Here you seem to have told it from Dearly's perspective, and also avoided making it into a speech.
Fav'd Millenium Wake, for when I get to it... headache.
I can't let a routine haunting turn into giving the mortals proof of life after death... (beetlejuice)
Damn it when is this going to be updated? The suspense is killing me!
Some very interesting stuff here, between the various layers of postmortem reality and the capabilities of earth pony magic. I always figured Pinkie could do what she does through her connection with the Element of Laughter. A sort of humorous omnipotence: She can do anything, as long as it's funny.
In any case, looking forward to more.