Hereafter

Binding Pact

A changeling dug the sharp edges of its hoof into my side. I gasped, jumping into the air.

“Hey, Rocket!” Shard, my sister, greeted with a wave.

“What? How? You’re alive!” I hovered in the air, too astonished to take in the details around me.

Shard stood below me, a smile had plastered across her buggified face. The last time I remembered her smile was when she died. She died in my arms, how was she alive?

“Oh, it’s quite simple.” Shard trotted away from me.

I followed her.

“Over here we have a nice crater-” she approached a deep crater with changeling fire licking at its rim “-And inside is you.”

How was that possible? I was behind her! The only conclusion was…

I stepped towards  the crater edge, little wisps of dread tried pulling me back, begging me not to take another step. Breathing slowly, I approached. Indeed, I was lying inside the crater. Yet, here I stood at the edge, looking down at myself. The me inside the crater was bloodied and motionless. The sight of a broken back sent shivers down my spine.

I turned to my sister. “I’m dead.” I felt hollow saying those two words.

“Yes indeedy you are!” Shard cheered, clapping her porous hooves together. Other ponies would think her cheerfulness strange in such a serious moment, but I knew my sister well. Her smile didn’t reach her pink eyes. She hid her feelings.

I sat down, my rump discovering the ground. “I’m dead.” Numbness crawled down into my bones. Wait, no, I didn’t have bones. My lip started to tremble. Did I have a lip? I was dead. I failed. “I’m dead.” I said again, squeezing my eyes shut. What happened? “I’m dead.” Maybe if I said it enough times I’d wake up and it’d be a bad dream.

“Hey, hey!” Shard called, grabbing my shoulders and giving a shake.

I could feel her hooves cut painfully into my fur. Did I have fur still? I took a quick glance down at my chest. Sure enough, there was my boring grey fur, glowing. Wait, glowing?

Shard shook my shoulders again. “Blue, you’re not completely dead!”

“What do you mean not completely?! I’m glowing like radioactive zombie! You’re in front of me! You’re dead, I’m dead.” Turning, I pointed at my body. “See, there I am, dead, lifeless, lying there an-gulk!”

Shard shoved a hoof into my mouth. “OK kiddo, I don’t have much time, so I’ll explain things real quick. Sit down, cross your hooves, and listen.”

I froze, staring into the solid-pink eyes of my sister. She gave me a reassuring smile. It was the smile she used when I was a filly, to tell me everything was going to be all right. I mumbled around her changeling hoof. Drool dripped out from the cavities in her chitin. Her eye twitched a little, and she pulled her hoof out.

“I’m listening.” I said.

“Remember when you were a filly and scared of ghosts?” she started, shaking her hoof clean. “I told you they didn’t exist. Well, it just so happens they do. You’re a ghost, Blue, you’re connected to this world, unable to move on to the Afterlife. Why? Well, your body is still alive.” Shard paused, letting her last words sink into me.

“My body is alive?” I was thoroughly confused.

“Yes. Brain dead. Simply put, you are not in your body. You are outside of your body, unrestrained. You’re free from the limitations of your physical form.” Shard leaned back, genuinely grinning. “It’s pretty awesome.”

“Pretty awesome?! Shard, I’m dead, I’m a ghost. This is a bad thing.”

“Is it?” she replied, cocking her head. But I could see in her eyes she agreed with me.

“I mean, yeah. I died. I have to go to hell or something. The grim reaper ponies are going to get me, I just know it. Should I run?” I wasn’t sure if running was the best option, but I didn’t want to go to hell.

Shard giggled, putting a black hoof to her fangs. What was her deal? I was dead!

I waited for her to control herself. I reminded myself she always had an issue keeping herself serious. She calmed down, shaking her head.

“Blue,” she said, “You’ve already been caught. I’m a grim reaper.”

“Pony feathers!” I cussed. This wasn’t fair. My own sister, come here to drag me to hell! She was going to damn me, in the very literal sense.

Shard giggled again.

I glared at her.

“Kiddo, I have a lot of souls to round up. But you are not one of them. Again, your body is still alive. That means you’re stuck in the Hereafter.” The, ‘everything is going to be all right,’ smile returned to her.

“The Hereafter?”

“Yes, the Hereafter, the realm between the living and the Afterlife. You’re stuck in it until your body dies or you return to it.” Shard’s expression melted into a stern look, her eyes narrowing into a glare. I froze, unable to move from her stare. Where had all the giggling gone?

“Be warned Blue, there are dangers in the Hereafter that will destroy you. Die in the Hereafter, and there is no Afterlife. You’re gone, forever. I need you to understand. You’re in danger. Your existence is at risk the longer you stay a ghost. I can’t save you, but you can save yourself.”

“Oh, that sounds-.”

“Terrifying? Yes.”

“Can’t I just, get back into my body and finish dying for you? Or, we wait for it to die? I’m pretty sure it’ll die soon. Look, see?” I turned, going to point at my dying body. I felt my jaw drop. “Woah, hold on there!”

Changelings surrounded my body and the idiot I had tried to save, covering both forms with green gunk.

“Yeah, about that, Blue. You’ve got a big issue. And her name is Aquisha.”

“Who?” I snapped, glaring at my sister. Changelings were getting ready to throw my body into one of their chrysalises. How was somepony, or someone, more of an issue than that? I needed to get back into my body to finish dying. How was I supposed to manage that if I was in a chrysalis? I’d seen Shard keep bodies in chrysalises before. It preserved the bodies even at the brink of death. I’d be stuck a ghost so long as my body remained alive.

Shard looked up.

I followed her gaze.

A changeling queen descended down to us like an angel of death.

Oh, that is an issue.

I turned back to my sister. “Hey, are ghosts invisible?”

“Yeah, to most living beings. But she’s my boss and she’s dead. We’re in charge of collecting changelings. Don’t worry, she’s totally cool!”

The queen landed a few paces away.

Shard’s confidence didn’t assure me. I took a nervous gulp, and approached the queen. She was a tall changeling, almost regal in her stride. Her body glowed a light green. We met halfway. “Blue Jay,” she spoke onto me, her voice proud,  “Capable pony, died with honor saving her kin.”

Died with honor? I took a gulp, struggling to breath. This was a changeling queen, royalty, to whom I was about to speak with. I opened my mouth, only to find an odd noise escape it.

Shard closed my jaw when it couldn’t manage the task on its own. My teeth made a sharp clacking sound.

The queen looked about her impatiently.

Unable to speak, I settled with a vigorous nod of my head.

She gave a satisfied smile, relieving my stress.

“You are familiar, I recall you from the shared  memories of Shadarah. You are her adopted sister and bonded. I watched your endeavor personally. Tragic that you failed, but your predicament proves worthy of my needs. Follow— we go!” and the queen was off, flying away without even a beat her wings.

I gaped, her retreating tail shrank away the further she flew, before I turned to my sister. “What?”

“Come on, you. What the queen says, we have to do!” Shard flew behind me, her wings buzzing. She grabbed me by my midsection, picking me up into the air.

I fought free of her hold.

She smiled sheepishly at me.

Shaking my head, I followed the queen.

The aftermath of the changeling’s battle was all around. I took notice of the remaining carnage. Small craters like the one that I died in pock-marked the field. A wild balefire ran rampant across the dry wheatfields. In the distance, the losing changelings retreated. Finally, around the largest of the craters, the winning swarm gathered.

In the end though, both armies had lost the battle.

We approached, flying through the dense crowd of warriors. The queen and Shard passed through any changeling that was in their way.

Still trying to grasp that I was dead, I flew around the changelings. Landing in the center of the crater, we approached two more queens, their bodies broken. One was dead.

The surviving queen groaned in pain. Her changelings surrounded her, applying goo to her wounds.

I turned to my sister. “Why did this happen? The battle I mean. What was the point of all of this?”

Shard shook her head. “Power and control. There was a reason I left my swarm. Ever since, ‘The End,’ changeling queens have fought each other for land. Changelings need love to survive. The better land means the better ponies to feed on. Kill the opposing swarm, and you have more land and ponies.”

Queen Aquisha stepped forward and stared down to the dying queen of the winning swarm.“And in the chaos, both queens have perished.”

I followed her gaze. My sister was a rare individual who left her swarm. But she had told me a long time ago that most changelings could not survive without a queen. Without their monarch’s voice in their minds, the silence drove many changelings to suicide. Shard explained it was like losing the most loved pony in the world.  Their queen was everything, without her, all of these changelings would simply have no reason to live. I bit my lower lip in despair. “All of them are going to be heartbroken and die without her.”

“Blue Jay, as Agents of Death, we do not wish for such tragedy.” Queen Aquisha said. “There are many souls here, every one of them a beautiful glow. Without a queen, these souls will turn to pain, and tarnish the land. Even now, the surviving changelings of the opposing swarm will spread darkness. You may have reservations against these changelings around us, but there is an opportunity for you to live again if you help them.”

My ears perked at that. “Live again? Are you saying I could still live my life?” I didn’t tell her that I was unbiased in whom I helped, that I already sympathized with these changelings. There was too much emotional energy in the air for her to pick up on my sympathy. I lived with my sister, I knew how changelings worked.

If I could live again and help, that sounded like a win, win situation to me. “How?” I added, focusing on the ghostified queen.

She slowly blinked, tears rolling down her chitin cheeks. It must have pained her to be surrounded by so much sorrow. Shard told me that changelings were sensitive to even their own emotional energies. “Approach the dying queen and make an offer. Her changelings will heal your body in return for finding a new queen.”

I curiously cocked my head to the side. “I can do that?”

“Demons will often offer their service to the dying, a Binding Pact. The dead’s wishes are complete, but at cost of their soul. In this case, you’ll want your body back. Her changelings can and will heal it with a chrysalis.”

“Ok, sounds like a plan, I’ll just-Shard, is something wrong?”

My sister held the look of worry on her ghostly features.

I took a step towards her, but she shook her head. “Shard?”

“Blue, the longer you stay in the Hereafter, the more at risk you are. You need to die and come with me. I’ve waited a long time to talk to you aga-.”

Queen Aquisha walked between Shard and me. “Agent Shadarah, you have stepped out of line. Blue Jay is not your soul to retrieve. Your purpose here is done. You are dismissed.”

Shard’s eye’s dimmed, her body relaxed. “Yes my queen, as you wish.” Without so much as a goodbye to me, she flew away.

I made to protest, but Queen Aquisha stopped me. “Blue, I will allow you to be with her again after you make the pact with the dying queen. If you do not, even in the Afterlife, you will never see Agent Shadarah again. Consider this our pact.”

Bitch! My jaw tightened in indignation. “Yes my queen.”  I snapped. It had been seven years since I had last saw my sister. There was an afterlife to behold. I could be with Shard again. But this queen just pulled a fast one on me. I was ready to do it anyway, but still, Shard was concerned…

“Shake on it.” I demanded, thrusting my ghostly hoof out to the regal bug-ass-queen to take.

“The pact has been done. You are sincere. There is no need for formalities. Now make the pact with the queen while she still breathes. Only as she dies will the Binding Pact be strong enough.”

Rolling my eyes, I turned on her with a snap of my tail. Fluttering my wings in agitation I approached the dying queen. She was talking with her changeling, giving them reassurances. My stride quickly lost its anger. The queen gently touched every changeling that managed to get near her. They cried like children around their mother. I shivered when two changelings walked through me, trying to get closer. Fast as my anger had come, I felt it drift away on the wind. War was horrible. War never changed.

Stepping through several changelings I sat next to the queen. I didn’t think she could see me, but she turned her head in my direction and stared. Sorrow filled her eyes. My presence confirmed her greatest fears. She was going to die, no matter how hard her changelings managed with their goo.

“Hi.” I said, trying to crack a smile for her. It didn’t work.

“You are of the merchants. Sajackie killed you and your friend. You still breathe, yet you are here. What is it you want, phantom.”

I wasn’t sure how to respond to that. I could only assume that she managed to telepathically gain the information of my death from my killer. Who apparently was named Sajackie. A shiver ran down my spine. There was something about knowing the name of that changeling now.

“Well, I was told your changelings can heal me up in a jip… that I could actually live again. I was also told you’re going to die and your changelings will need a queen.” I didn’t want to sound so blunt, but it came out that way. Giving a sigh, I craned my head over my shoulder to Queen Aquisha. She watched with an emotionless gaze.

I turned back to the queen at hoof, wishing I could let her feed on me and take a little of my love. But sadly, I was currently dead, so she couldn’t.

The dying queen sighed. “The Stars told of this moment, they spoke unto me in a dream. I did not heed their warning. Battle called.” A cough ripped through her, blue blood spraying up from her mouth.

I patiently waited for her to stop and address me again. To the surrounding changelings it could have only look like delirium in their queen’s last moment.

“Will you command your changelings to heal my body? I will find a new queen for them.”

The queen slowly wheezed, and she struggled to breathe. Looking into the sky, she worked her jaw before answering me, “Yes. You were to be made a common disguise, your body shown to my little changelings. We will preserve and heal your body, yes, I have said it.” Turning her head, she stared into my eyes. “In the land of Equestria, there roams a daughter with no hive. Cast out by her kin, she has run far away. Find her and she will be queen. If she is queen, her kin will accept her again.” The queen coughed, throwing blood through my ghostly self.

I struggled not to squirm.

She smiled her last smile. “Tell my Rose… that I love her.” and light faded from the queen’s eyes.

I turned away, ethereal tears cascading down my cheeks.

Tutorial Complete: New level set.

New Perk: Binding Pact – The skill, Binding Pact, has been unlocked. You can now approach the dying and offer your services, for a price. Level (1)

Lore: Ghosts – Energy anomalies left behind from the dead. Vulnerabilities includ- [Data Corrupted.]