Coming Back
I stand at the foot of the bed my friend lies in, “I guess this is end, dear friend.”
Hoofler coughs roughly, before smiling at me with tiny bits of blood spattering his mouth, “It had to happen sometime, Tim. You saved me from madness, dear friend. There is no one other that my family I would wish to die near. And if anyone is family, you are.”
I try to grab his hoof, but my hand just goes through it, “It’s tragic, isn’t it? Your best friend, close enough to be family, and yet you have never actually seen me.”
Adolf leans back as he breathes out, “That’s not true. I’ve seen you in the garden, remember all those times? Remember how Snowy and I met there?”
I nod, “Of corse I remember, how could I forget? You were so happy to find a mare that loved art just as much as you. Even if that art was more with weather than paint. You smiled the whole night, talked about her, before we knew it you were married. Little Steel Hoof and Snowy Flash. But that doesn’t count. We’ve never talked, face to face, never felt the others touch. All we do is because of apparitions and illusions. Maybe I could break free now and rush to the hospital...”
He shakes his head, “No, Tim, no. We’ve been friends for two centuries, you cannot just discredit that!” He coughs roughly, before recovering, “You cannot break free just yet, dear friend. I know it pains you to see me pass, but you remember what the Zebras said. ‘One will stand on the ground, the other shall love to fly. And if you fall in duty, both will do naught but die’. You know you cannot throw away their lives because of me. We are friends, that’s all I need to know. I could care less if all I see is an illusion, it is still you to me.”
I hang my head at the end of his bed, “This is the final time I will see you, Hoofler. This... this is goodbye.”
He simply smiles sadly, “It was a wild twin centuries, Tim. This... this is not the last we’ll see of each other. Somehow, I believe my painting will come true. But that doesn’t rid the fact of my death. I ask but one simple favor from you, dear friend. Before I die, could you do one last thing?”
I raise my head, and look right at Hoofler, “What is it, dear friend?”
He leans closer to my ear, and whispers out his final wish, “Keep my granddaughters safe...”
He lets the last word run for a while longer as he takes a final breath. He leans back in his bed, and lets it go with a smile on his face. He closes his eyes, and doesn’t open them again.
I sit there, and look at my now dead friend. I take in a shaky breath, “Of corse, Hoofler. Anything to help a friend.”
He steps back from the bed, and summons up a Chello with his Element. He takes a bow, and drags it across the strings. The bright and colorful Jester playing a song of mourning.
The notes carry the happiness of Hoofler’s life, and the sadness of his passing. A quick and angry melody for his rejection from the college of Muneigh, which quickly flows into a calm and peaceful melody for the meeting of the two friends. An uplifting but still somber tone as he meets his future wife, and eventually watches her die. An optimistic and fast melody as he starts to gain money from his art. It shifts into playfulness as he has his two daughters. It becomes more stern as he teaches his children right from wrong, whilst Snowy teaches them how to fly. A sudden stop happens in the notes, as the Chello is joined by other instruments. A tribal melody with the Chello providing a sense of foreboding as the Zebra’s provide a worrying prophecy. The tribal drums fade to a rising brass section as he travels the world with his family and best friend. The blaring trombones and trumpets grow more quiet as he grows older. Until they fade away entirely, and leave a solitary Chello that moves slowly and quietly, as he passes away.
Elsewhere in the hospital are two Pegasus mares walking to visit their father. They hear the song of the Jester, and immediately know what happened. They enter his room, and see him dead. Their uncle plays the song next to him as he plays the final note. As their uncle looks at his dear friend once more, he fades away.
—(550 Years later)—
I wait in my void. I swirl my brush in multiple different colors as I try to nail down how to paint Celestia’s mane and make it look like it’s flowing. Luna’s was a bit easier, as she had a less complex pattern of colors, simply blues and whites was her mane. But Celestia’s is multiple different colors, and it’s hard to fit that many colors on a single brush.
I lightly touch the brush to the canvas, but a laugh interrupts me. A mad laugh.
It is easy to recognize Discord’s laugh. My painting is suddenly thrown over by the laugh.
One of my bells on my hat start to shake, and actually starts to sing.
”A thousand years has passed!
Since we have heard your song last!
For chaos has been released at it’s core!
We beg you to bring you music once more!
Before the world starts to burn!
Your music, we yearn!
Grab the gift, the Everfree’s bell!
Throw it and escape from this hell!”
I take the bell that is singing at me, and look at it. The bell of the Everfree. I remember gaining this.
I clench my fist as I hear the laugh once more. This is my time to escape, and keep Discord distracted until the Elements trap him!
I throw the bell into the void, and the void shatters.
I find myself sitting in the chair I was frozen in, and my muscles are quite sore. I stand up, and see Discord in the distance.
I tap into my Element’s power for the first time in five centuries. I hold my hand out, and my instrument starts to slowly appear in it. Rusty without practice, it would appear. After a minute, my ukulele is gripped by my hands.
I face toward Discord, and play a single strum. The strum being a challenge to Discord. He hears it, and turns around to face me, “You!”
I stand there in the billowing wind of taffy, ukulele grasped near my chest. My robes and hat blow, ringing the bells on my uniform. The bright red color as bright as it was one thousand years before. I smile and looks up at Discord, “That’s right. I’m back, old friend. And I’m here to stop you.”