Noises.

I begun to hear noises fade in from the silence. Nothing too loud or annoying, just conversation. I couldn't make out what anypony was saying, but I did know that there were a lot of ponies around me at various distances.

Then I was suddenly made aware of my body. I could feel the existence and position of each of my limbs.

Legs! Still got legs!

I was laying down on what felt like soft carpet. It was ever so comfortable. So comfortable that I would've stayed laying there if it wasn't for the fact that I had died a bit ago. A thought entered my mind.

Wait, am I alive? Did I get picked up by an ETT? 'Cause that would be a bit ironic.

Irony aside, I became aware of a very important body part at that moment. I closed my eye lids tight just to make sure they still functioned. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes.

The light was rather blinding at first but I quickly got used to it. I was in an extremely large room occupied by what looked like really tall ponies. Then I realized my position and stood on my hooves. The ponies weren't tall but normal sized. I noticed that the ponies that were in the room were mostly pegasi of various colors. There were quite a bit of them but no where near enough to fill the room.

As stated before, the room was extremely large. Like, it was so big that my description was an understatement. I would need to use every synonym of the word "ginormous" 20 times in order to be in the same ballpark. It looked to be some sort of theatre with a stage towards the front. From the stage there was a lot of empty, carpeted space that was occupied by the many ponies and I. There was still a lot more space for other ponies behind us, as well as balconies above the ground floor. If I had to guess, the theatre could probably hold a million or so ponies. On the stage was a simple podium and on the wall behind it was a video projection of the podium for those farther back.

Either there's going to be some kind of announcement or me and a LOT of other ponies were suckered in to see a school play.

Time began to tick on. I had no idea what I was doing here or where I was, but something inside of me told me to be patient and my questions would be answered. That didn't stop my boredom unfortunately. My eyes began to look at the pegasi around me. I didn't really recognize any of them, and they didn't really seem to pay me much mind either. They mostly seemed to be in serious conversation or slightly shocked.

I tried to listen in to their conversations but got distracted by the sound of noise behind me. I turned my head and my jaw nearly hit the floor. The huge amount of empty space behind me was filled with a myriad of ponies. It was surely impossible that so many ponies could enter the room without raising any attention.

Holy buck! How in the name of Princess Luna did an amount of ponies equal to that of Manehatten's population just sneak in here? I can't even sneak into the movie theatre without getting caught.

Suddenly everypony got quiet and turned towards the stage. I turned as well and saw a pony standing behind the podium. This mare looked very familiar. She was bright pink with blue eyes. Her mane was poofy with the texture between that of cotton candy and a cloud. Then it hit me.

Minister Pinkie Pie.

It was indeed the Minister Mare of the Ministry of Morale. She looked younger, like those pictures of her before the war. She also seemed nervous, as if she was about to share bad news. She tapped the mic.

"Um. If I could get everyponies' attention for a moment," Minister Pie said in a worried tone, her hair started to straighten as she talked. "I'm sure you all are very confused as to where you are and what happened. I know what happened....but I need to wait for somepony that will be able to tell you...better than I."

Her voice was shaky and seemed forced. As if she wanted to cry but built a wall to try to keep the tear-flood from coming out. Unfortunately her wall was made of sugar and was crumbling away.

She backed away from the podium and took a seat in a wooden chair off to the right. She seemed to stare into space as she tried to remain calm. Her expression seemed to be in a constant tug-of-war between neutral and sad. Absentmindedly she begun to fiddle with her now completely straight, slightly grey mane.

Conversation seemed to pick back up amongst the ponies in the room. I couldn't take my eyes off of Minister Pinkie Pie.

I had never seen her so sad or at such a loss for words. She always seemed so unconditionally happy that any other expression was new and different. I've heard that even during the most dark and stormy of days she would smile and hum as if it were sunny and beautiful. Whatever she had to say must be terrible news. Like death-of-a-Ministry-Mare bad or ,Luna forbid, death-of-a-Princess bad.

I gulped as I pondered these thoughts. I was genuinely scared of the news, as well as slightly impatient.

After a few moments I blinked and another pony was on stage. They were in an odd pose that looked as if they were leaning against a window with their hoof pressing against it. The pony opened their eyes and looked around. They then looked at the hoof they had been holding up, inspecting it as if for damage.

The video feed on the wall moved to show the new pony on stage. It was a unicorn mare that had a white coat and beautiful purple mane. The mane was styled so that it curled at the end and her tail was styled in a similarly curled manner. This gorgeous mare was also immediately familiar as she was another Ministry Mare. Minister Rarity of the Ministry of Image. She seemed more confused than anything else.

The room quickly silenced which caused Minister Pie to snap out of her trance and notice Minister Rarity. Minister Pie walked over to Minister Rarity. Minister Rarity looked confused as she said something to Minister Pie. Minister Pie hugged Minister Rarity and started talking as tears streamed down her face. She kept talking for several moments as Minister Rarity's face turned from expressions of shock to those of immense sadness. Minister Pie broke the hug and wiped the tears from her face. She said some final thing and gestured to the podium. She looked at Minister Rarity with pleading eyes. Minister Rarity looked at Minister Pie for a moment and nodded. She walked up to the podium and looked over the crowd.

"Good afternoon, everypony," she said with a slight sadness to her voice. "I have some bad news that might be a touch tough to hear....Equestria was hit with Megaspells launched by the zebra nation."

There were gasps and ponies started to talk amongst themselves.

"That's not all," Minister Rarity spoke up, silencing everypony once more. "Every pony in this room is...dead...we all died during the last day..."

Minister Rarity went silent and looked down at the podium itself. It looked like she was trying to collect her thoughts.

Meanwhile, the room exploded in noise as ponies began to react to the news. Some cried and wailed, while others seemed deep in thought. I was the latter.

Okay. So I didn't fall asleep on my inventory forms. Damn. I was hoping this was just a dream. Wait, if I'm dead, where the fuck am I? Is this some kind of afterlife? I really hope they have big bathrooms because there are a lot of ponies in here. On the bright side, the carpet is pretty comfy...Wait a minute, if we all died that means...

"Ditzy Doo!" I said out loud.

I stood up straight in an attempt to look over the ponies around me. I began to look around for the grey pegasus.

I saw a unicorn who had somehow gotten a bench into here and was sitting very oddly on it. She was comforting a normal sitting earth pony with three candies as a cutie mark.

Some grey did catch my eye in the form of an earth pony mare. Her mane was a darker grey and she wore a bow tie. Her cutie mark I know now to be a treble clef and not a "weird music thingy." She seemed to be mirroring my actions of looking for somepony in the crowd. We made eye contact for a few seconds and I felt her raw emotion in her gaze. Immense sadness and just the overall fear of being lost. I couldn't help but hope she found the pony she was looking for.

I continued searching, but didn't see a glimpse of Ditzy. This left two possibilities. Either she was lost in this myriad of ponies or she was still alive. I'm not sure which would have been better.

As I began to look forward again, I became aware of a new presence next to me. A zebra, except this one wasn't a tall, growling beast with glowing red eyes like the ones I was told about. It looked rather pony-like in fact. It was just a striped pony with a mohawk and a spiraling cutie mark. Nothing more, nothing less. He was examining me much the same way. We were probably thinking on the same line of reasoning. The Zebra looked into my eyes with an expression that wasn't evil nor bloodthirsty, just curious.

I decided to take the chance on the thought of "Oh what the hell? We're ALREADY dead." I extended my hoof. He looked down at it for a moment and then to me again. He smiled slightly and met my hoof with his own and we shook them.

That being out of the way we looked back to the stage. Minister Rarity was no longer at the podium. She sat next to Minister Pie who was trying to comfort her. Minister Rarity stared into space, no doubt trying to wrap her mind around the recent news. Now standing at the podium were two ponies or a pony and a zebra to be exact. The pony was recognizable as the Equestrian hero Big Macintosh. The stallion that sacrificed his life to save Princess Celestia from an assassin. For some reason Big Macintosh was wearing a wooden collar of sorts with two pieces of metal coming off of it. I couldn't make heads or tails of it, but I assumed it meant something to him. I didn't recognize the zebra, but to my credit I had only met my first zebra literaly a moment earlier. The only thing I could figure out from the zebra was that she was a mare.

The crowd exploded for a second time, I didn't think things could explode twice, in loud conversation. This time directed towards the stage. Ponies were yelling at the zebra on the stage. While the zebras, which there appeared to many in the crowd all of a sudden, were yelling at Big Macintosh. Big Macintosh took a deep breath.

"SILENCE!" he yelled.

The microphone cut out, but the sheer projection of his voice had caused it to echo off the walls. Needless to say, everypony shut up on the spot. Big Macintosh let out his remaining breath and began to speak.

"You ponies ought t' be ashamed of yourselves." Big Macintosh said, "The war is over. No one won. There is no reason that y'all should treat zebras so poorly."

"That goes for you too, zebra-kind.
Surely other things are on your mind."
The zebra rhymed,
"Must we always fight and bicker?
Wouldn't making friends be much quicker?
No matter how hard you yell and argue,
It won't bring your life back to you.
So turn to those to which you surround,
And make an apology that is profound."

With that there were murmurs of sorries from all around. I turned to my new zebra friend with my head hanging low.

"I'm sorry for how poorly I and my fellow ponies have treated your kind." I said.

"Well, we didn't exactly extend the olive branch of peace either." He said, "For that I do apologize on my country's behalf."

He extended his hoof with a smile. I matched his smiled and shook his hoof.

The room became silent once more. Big Macintosh smiled and began speaking again.

"Good. Ma name is Big Macintosh but y'all can all me Big Mac. This here is Zecora. She's a good friend of mine. Now I'm bettin' y'all are curious as t'where y'all are. As Rarity", he gestured over to Minister Rarity, "Had said, everyone here is dead. This is mighty sad news, Ah know."

"Despair not, all of you.
For this land, while not home, is new."
Zecora said,
"While gone are those you once knew.
They'll soon be here, this is true."

"Like Zecora said, yer friends and family will be here eventually. Ah know it's a mite morbid to think this way, but it's the honest truth. It might be hard, but Ah must ask those with loved ones not here t' be strong an' patient." Big Mac paused for a moment and looked very tired, "Ah know how y'all feel. Family is what's most important t' me. Not a moment passes that Ah don't miss ma sisters."

Big Mac closed his eyes and tilted his head downwards. He didn't look like he was crying, he seemed too strong, but no doubt he felt immense pain. Zecora started speaking in his silence.

"I, aswell, am missing great friends,
With whom my friendship will never end.
Although death separates them from I.
Time is a very long way to die.
Much like what was said by Big Mac,
Patience is what will bring your friends back."

With that the room fell once more into silence as everyone contemplated what Zecora and Big Mac had said.

On stage, Big Mac had picked up his head and was looking a little better. He smiled and nodded at Zecora. Meanwhile, Minister Pie seemed to deeply ponder this. As if she had come to a realization, a smile began to form on her face. As she smiled, her coat seemed to brighten in color and her mane start to return to its signature puff. She got up from her chair and approached the podium, Big Mac and Zecora stepping aside to allow her passage.

"I'm sorry, everypony...and everyzebra too! I'm sorry for being a complete mopey pants. I was just sad because I missed the other world and my friends, but my friends are going to be here eventually and this world is so totally AWESOME! I look just like I did before that icky wicky war. No grey at all. And now I have all the time I need to be friends with everyone."

Minister Pie sunk behind the podium and sprung up in the audience. She was in front of a pegasus mare about 10 meters from me.

"Like you!"

She sunk out of sight and I could hear far behind me.

"And you!"

I turned my neck to see where she had popped up. When I turned back I was nose to nose with the pink mare. Her big, blue eyes filling a large portion of my vision.

"And YOU!"

I felt a hoof grab my chest and pull me down. It was like I had gone through the floor. Everything went black. When light returned I was facing the large room of ponies. I looked around and found myself to be on the stage. Next to me were the pegasus mare from earlier and a zebra stallion. Both of whom with the same confused look I'm sure I had as well. I looked back out at the crowd and felt incredibly tiny in comparison. I had no idea what had happened or why, but oddities like these were common with the Ministry Mare. I simply chalked it up to Minister Pie being Minister Pie.

I heard a rather cartoon-y BOING and turned my attention to the bouncing Ministry Pie at the podium. After the third bounce, she stopped and began talking again.

"First things first..."

The was a loud thud as a section of the stage turned into stairs leading into the audience. Behind me I heard a magical zap and turned to see a large door that was a very bright pink with balloons designs on it. I turned back to Minister Pie.

"It's time to PARTY!"

On the last word she somehow pulled me, the zebra, the pegasus, Big Mac, and Zecora into a rather tight side-hug. At the same time the large door creaked open and spewed out confetti and balloons. It was hard not to smile at that moment. Almost as if Minister Pie was some kind of joyous disease that was spread by contact.

Thus ended Equestria as I knew it, and began a more peaceful and friendly afterlife. Surely this is paradise.

Author's Note

Remember when I said I wasn't trying to mess with the canon. That was the case with the first chapter, but with this one I said "Screw that with a Zebra's front hoof!" I tried to keep this inline with the original story, but didn't write any of this with side stories in mind. Sorry about that. I hope this isn't as bad as I'm thinking. It is written a bit differently than the first, but they are kinda different settings. In the first chapter the only thing there was the narrator so he had a lot of internal dialogue. In this chapter the narrator is just an observer to what's happening, so there is less internal dialogue. I hope you enjoyed this second of the three parts.