AGC

Rainbow Dash didn't remember how long she'd been asleep or how she had gotten back from that... place. Despite having just woken up, she was exhausted, hungry and aching. The sun was just coming up... or was it? She recognized the hospital room immediately: the blue-and-white tiled ceilings had kept her company on many sleepless nights following her rescue. She noticed a thin layer of dust across the floor, and somebody had placed a bouquet next to her head. How sweet.

"Rest in Peace, Rainbow Dash." read the tag.

A long list of names were signed after this. She didn't know most of them: her friends' signatures had occupied most of the tag. Twilight. Rarity. Fluttershy. Scootaloo. The Wonderbolts had signed it. There were confessions of love and envy, apologies and promises, poems and drawings.

Am I really this popular?

Rather, was I? she thought, rereading the print of the tag.

A dead pony. She'd seen Pony Heaven. She'd talked to a dead pony. She'd-

She shook her head. Now was not the time to analyse fever dreams.

Or perhaps it was. She could do nothing but wait for her own funeral.

No-no-no, Dashie! Happy thoughts!

If Dash were alive, she would have started. The voice came from within her own mind, but there was no doubt to what it was: Pinkie Pie was speaking to her.

Melancholy makes everything worse! Be happy! Happy! Happy! Happy!

Dash groaned. This was going to be a long funeral…

"I... I can't believe it." lamented Applejack.  "She was doin' so good, and then just outta tha blue this - what'd the doc call it again, Twi?"

"Aneurysm." She'd been buried in medical texts since her friend's death, trying to draw a connection between the stress and the recovering pegasus' wounds.

"And she was finally reaching a positive turn: something good after all she'd been through." commented  Rarity.

Fluttershy was too grief-stricken to contribute. Dash's passing had traumatised the otherwise innocent mare.

The four of them sat solemnly in the waiting room. Not that there was anything that could be done; it was just a formality.

That just makes it worse, right? The thought was nopony's in particular, but its penetrating presence was palpable. To be told that she's not coming back. Can we not just let her be gone?

Dash had done some ridiculous things in the past, but this was by far the least explicable. She was lying, hooves crossed, eyes closed, in an open coffin, while friends and fans took turns paying their respects. She listened intently.

"Ah'm sorry, Rainbow Dash. I feel like it's mah fault, making ya work so soon after… " Applejack cut herself off, unable to control her emotions further.

"You really shouldn't have pushed yourself so hard, darling. You were such a great pony, but your bravery, your arrogance…" Rarity caught herself tearing up. "…caught up with you."

"You were doing so well…” said the next voice in line. “…and then just out of nowhere you die in your sleep? What happened to you? What did she do to you?" Twilight asked, head sunk as she walked away.

A small whine came from the next pony in line.

"Dash… I… how? H-how c-could you do this to m-me?" Fluttershy said, crying louder than she'd ever spoken. "I didn't even get to tell you… tell you that… I-I… that we—" She interrupted herself, breaking into incomprehensible sobbing and screaming as she ran away from the casket.

Dash was stunned. Even for Fluttershy, the sudden burst of emotion was unwonted. She caught herself tearing up—

No. She didn't want to give any expression, anything to betray her life.

There were another hundred-odd ponies in line with wishes for her departure. She had to focus. Listen. Plan.

She'd been under for two days now, if her circadian rhythm was anything to go by. She was hungry. Bored. But most of all, anxious.

If Pinkie wasn't just making something up, then any second now there should be- Bah. What was she doing, trusting that nonsensical, mass-murdering lunatic. It was probably all rubbish, and she'd die here. She'd be trapped in this coffin, this tomb, until she died of starvation. Or would dehydration come first? It struck her just how small it was inside: she couldn't lift either arm more than a foot or stretch her legs at all. A week, maybe two? Two weeks of writhing in a small box underground waiting to starve to death. She knew there was no use wearing herself out by screaming or pounding: nopony would hear her, even if—

Her train of thought was broken by sound from above the box. A shuffling, grating sound. What in—

Thunk. Something struck the top of the casket.

Had Pinkie been right? She could hear more digging outside. This couldn't really be happening. There's no way that—

The lid opened. Dash expected to be blinded, but the light of the high-hanging moon served only to silhouette her saviour. She couldn't make out any of his features, save the soft blue glow tracing its eyes. "Come. Your presence has been requested." he spoke, his monotone voice sending chills down Dash's spine.

She was led silently down too many dark paths to count, winding and twisting through the Everfree forest, until they reached an alabaster doorway, emblazoned with a strange seal: a circle around an equilateral triangle, the inside of which was marked with two different sets of arrowed lines, one pointing towards the center, the other pointing outwards.

The strange stallion opened the door and led her down a steep staircase to the antechamber. There sat a long table, the kind found at royal dining halls. The table was decorated with skeletons and remains in various states of decay: if Dash had had anything in her stomach, she would have vomited at the sight.

Beyond the dining hall, there was a large, circular chamber, with a triangle tracing across the ground, similar to the emblem on the door. At the point of each triangle stood a shrine to one of three different… things.

A beautiful, coiling dragon carved from bright white stone surveyed the chamber.

A statue of an alicorn, graceful even in death, hung from the ceiling on obsidian chains.

A stone owl with deep blue sapphires for eyes sat patiently, watching intently.

Her guide pointed her towards the first of these, the dragon. There was enough light in the chamber that she could now make out his features. That is, she could have, had he not been clothed head-to-hoof in dark grey fabric. She could see his bright blue eyes, literally glowing, on his black-blue face, and his maroon tail jutting into the air as he bowed before the serpent statue.

Dash looked on, confused. A plaque below the statue caught her attention:

Dator - The Positive Change

Creation. Birth. Victory.

"Change is a versatile force." explained the gravedigger.  "Change for the better – creation, resurrection– is the realm of Dator, the Giver. In return for your... premature expiry, Dator has seen fit to birth you anew."

"So what exactly is this?" asked Rainbow Dash, not wanting a history lesson.

He was patient with her impatience. "This," he said, "is the Temple of the Triumvirate. They have been expecting you."