We stand together

‘Bluey?’ asked Pinkie Pie, ‘Was the Princess talking about the same afterlife as...’

‘Yes, I’m afraid she was Pinkie.’ Bluewing replied, trying his best not to sound scared.

She pushed herself closer to him, doing less of a good job of hiding her terror.

‘It’s going to be OK Pinkie’ Bowdler reassured her, ‘Me, Dasher and Bluewing will find a way to stop Nightmare Moon and those damn aliens and life can go back to normal.’

‘You didn’t see the afterlife, Bowdler...’ said Applejack, ‘It was horrifying’

‘It wasn’t THAT bad...’ muttered Rainbowdash, but then she apparently changed her mind ‘Yes it was...’

They got to the junction in the road that headed off to sweet apple acres. Applejack headed down that road with Fluttershy, who was too terrified to spend the night alone. Bluewing and Rarity headed back to their homes in the centre of Ponyville and Rainbowdash took off and flew up to Cloudsdale, leaving Bowdler alone.

He sighed.

He was just getting used to having that much company, but now he was alone again. The house wasn’t too far down the road, he could sleep soon.

Suddenly, a cart appeared on the road behind him, approaching fast. He sidestepped onto the grass and it ground to a halt where he was stood. A white pony with brown blotches on his fur was pulling it and turned to speak to Bowdler.

‘Do you know where I can find Ponyville?’ he asked in a well spoken manner, ‘Me and my family are just moving there from Trottingham’

‘It’s just round the corner’ he replied, trying to sound equally polite but failing due to his accent, ‘I could take you there if you wanted’

‘That would be very helpful,’ he said as he unbuckled himself from the cart, ‘Thank you. Lucy! Pip! Out you come! This nice pony is going to take us into Ponyville!’ Two other ponies came out of the cart, a brown mare and an extremely tiny colt. The colt ran up to him and started bouncing around his legs.

‘Hello there! My name is Pipsqueak and I am a pirate! Who are you?’

‘Uh... Hi Pipsqueak, I’m Bowdler and I’m a guard.’

‘Oh you’re a guard? That’s so cool! I want to be a guard when I grow up, well... That or a pirate!’ he bounced around some more.

The brown mare chuckled, ‘Calm down Pip, you’ll frighten the nice stallion.’

‘Who, this guy? He’s a big and tough guard! I could never frighten him!’

Bowdler felt a wave of pride. This young pony was looking up to him, in more ways than one.

‘So, whereabouts in ponyville are you moving to?’

‘Just on the outskirts, we’ve got a picture, we’ll know it when we see it.’

The four ponies began walking down the road towards ponyville. They went right past Bowdler’s house, which made him feel a bit tired, until they got to a small cottage just next to sugarcube corner.

‘This is the one!’ said the white stallion, ‘Thank you, kind pony’

‘Anytime!’ he replied, smiling.

‘Bye Bowdler!’ squeaked Pipsqueak, before running into the house.

‘That was nice of me...’ he thought, ‘Where did that come from?’

He turned and walked back to his house. It was getting dark by the time he got there, he made sure to check the clock so it was the correct time for night. It was, he could sleep easy. As soon as he got to his bed, he jumped onto it and fell fast asleep.

~

‘So then, hero. You believe it is your time? Heh! You are not the first to think such a thing. There have been many before you, only one has come close to success.’

‘What? Who are you? Show yourself!’

‘I do not need to show myself to inspire fear in your heart, foalish pony. Bowdler, I believe you call yourself? I have just come to... remind you, that I am not finished with you. And nor am I finished with your little friend Bluewing.’

‘Wait, you know about my past? And what’ve you got to do with Bluewing?’

‘You really don’t remember anything, do you? Ha! And they said you were the strong minded one.’

‘Tell me about myself! I need to know!’

‘Only time will tell, fool. But I will say this. You are not who you think you are, your dreams will never come to pass, you will fail. The alien horde will destroy this world, and from the ashes, will rise an empire stronger than the Equestrian one would have ever been. Now rise, mortal. Your so called friends need you...’

~

Bowdler awoke with a start, snapping bolt upright in his bed. He could remember having a weird and quite frankly scary dream, but he couldn’t remember what it was. However, he could remember that he needed to get to Canterlot.

He stumbled out of bed and down the stairs. He remembered that he’d still not refilled his fridge since Derpy emptied it, but he’d check anyway. What was inside surprised him slightly. There was a large cake, with ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ written on it in bold, pink icing. He smiled. This was Pinkie Pie’s doing from when she’d tidied up. He took a slice and bolted it down. It was the single most delicious thing he’d ever tasted. He couldn’t stay and enjoy the rest of it though, he had work to do.

~

He could feel a strong magic force flowing through Canterlot castle when he got there, it was as if all of the magic in Equestria was concentrated in this one place. Bluewing and Dasher were already at the entrance to the throne room.

‘We thought we’d wait for you,’ said Bluewing, ‘Something big looks like it’s going on in there’

He was right, purple arcane liquids were flowing from beneath the door.

‘Guards,’ said Dasher, ‘Clang, just let us in for Celestia’s sake’

The two guards moved away and let them go into the room. Inside there was a huge, bulging portal. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna stood at either side of it, their horns glowing and their manes pulsing with magic.

‘Took you long enough,’ yelled Celestia, her voice echoing unnaturally, ‘It’s taking a lot of energy to keep this open, it goes to the warp, get in! I’ll brief you once you’re inside!’

Dasher nodded and jumped in first, not showing any signs of hesitation. Bowdler was about to, but noticed that Bluewing had frozen with fear.

‘Bluewing! You’ve got to get in here, quick!’

‘That thing goes to the warp Bowdler! Have you ever seen that place!?’

‘No, but I don’t care! Get in here!’

‘Same time OK?’

‘If you want’ Bluewing grabbed onto Bowdler’s shoulder.

‘Alright, let’s go.’ They ran in.

~

They fell down with a crash at the other side, the portal closing behind them as soon as they got through.

‘What took you so long?’ asked Dasher, who had already got up and dusted himself off. Bluewing groaned, he’d not been here in a long time.

They were stood on a large, red island which was floating around in a vast, empty space filled with purple stars. Bowdler felt a sharp spike of sadness, the stars reminded him of the purple of Twilight’s eyes. He shook himself out of it. He had things to do, even if he didn’t know exactly what.

As if on cue, Celestia’s voice echoed around them.

‘Can you hear me? I can’t hear you. If you can hear me, I’m about to tell you what you’re meant to do. The three of you have to travel to the afterlife, deep inside the warp, to check whether everypony who should be in there still is.’

‘Yes ma’am’ replied Dasher.

‘You realise she just said she can’t hear you?’ retorted Bowdler.

‘Oh... Right...’

‘Lucky Rainbowdash wasn’t here to see that, right Dasher?’ said Bluewing smirking.

‘Damn it Bluewing, why’ve you got to make it awkward?’

‘Because it’s uncomfortable here... I need to lighten up the mood’

‘Right!’ interrupted Bowdler, ‘Before we have an argument, let’s go find the afterlife’

He took off and hovered for a bit, hoping they’d follow.

‘To, “Find” the afterlife, so to say, won’t be easy’ Bluewing replied, ‘it’s like Bloodstone, no set location. And this time we’ve not got a dragon to help us out’

‘What, have you been there or something?’

He shifted uncomfortably, ‘Just a bit...’

Dasher sighed, ‘We’ll have to find it one way or another. I for one can’t stay in this place forever.’

‘I agree, we’ll just have to look for a while.’

A large boulder floated past, spinning wildly.

‘Follow the boulder?’ ‘Why the hell not?’

They began to fly after it as it weaved it’s way randomly through the starry void.