Chapter Two, Which is mostly about the type of ponies you can meet at funerals
Chapter Two; Which is mostly about the type of ponies you can meet at funerals
There are many things one can often see in Ponyville, funerals are not one of these things.
The old graveyard just outside of the town’s limits rarely ever saw any publicity with the exception of a few ponies that dropped by every now and again to pay their respects to lost loved ones. Even the small group of six or seven ponies gathered there to say farewell to the newest addition to the rows of corpses had been more than the little cemetery had seen in years. It might have even been enough ponies for a party had the right host been there, instead of that boring old minister that was leading the group through the ceremony.
Upon arriving at the cemetery with saddlebags full of fake bones and bed sheets ghost costume, two mares were greeted by a morbid sight.
“You know Pinky, I don’t think today’s the best day for pranking.” The one said looking to her friend.
“Aww, why not?” the other whined, “Just look at all those ponies we can scare.” She continued pointing her hoof out toward the assembly of mourning ponies.
“We should probably leave them alone. They probably don’t want to be pranked right now.” Rainbow Dash replied.
“Well why else would they have a party in a spooky old cemetery if they didn’t want somepony to scare them?” Pinky Pie asked, confused by Dash’s logic. She pondered on the thought for a moment then continued. “They don’t seem to be having very much fun… This seems like a job for Pinky Pie, party planer extraordinaire.” Pinky then ran over to the “party” before Rainbow Dash even had time to protest.
When she reached the crowd, Pinky Pie was greeted by the one pony that didn’t look completely miserable. He was a lean grey earth pony stallion with a dark mane that was swept back over the top of his head. He had a shabby white cloth wrapped around his flank and much of his hind legs. He welcomed Pinky Pie with the type of forced smiles one would expect to find on a used car salesman. “Nice to see you could make it” he said.
“I wouldn’t miss a party for the world” Pinkie replied giving him a delightful smile of her own.
He chuckled briefly realizing the mare probably was not a formal guest at the funeral and said “Well I must apologize Miss, but I don’t believe this is the type of party you would be used to, but you’re welcome to stay regardless.”
By this time Rainbow dash had made her way over to her friend. “Come on Pinkie, let’s get out of here” she urged the pink pony, but with little success.
“Why such the rush?” the stallion asked.
“Well we don’t want to well… interrupt” Dash said, although her retaliation was useless as her counterpart was already prancing about trying to make for a more “lively” celebration.
The stallion smirked at the futile attempts by Pinky to cheer the other ponies up. Looking back to Rainbow Dash he said “It seems your friend wants to stay, you wouldn’t want to leave her alone now would you?”
Rainbow Dash just sighed, “If you want us to stay so much would you mind at least telling me whose funeral I’m attending?”
“This would be the funeral of a miss Lyra Heartstrings, and I am In Finem. I’m Lyra’s, well… let’s just say I was a close friend of hers.” He thought for a moment then continued. “It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss…”
“It’s Rainbow Dash, and what kind of a name is In Fanim anyway?”
“Finem, In Finem” he corrected her “and it’s Latin.”
“Hey, wasn’t Lyra that street musician from town?” Dash asked.
“I’m sure she was, I’m not really from around here you see.”
The two talked a little while longer until Pinky finally gave cheering ponies up a break and came over to see what the two ponies that weren’t too depressed had to say. She sat next to her friend for a few minutes listening to In Finem and Rainbow Dash talk about Lyra. What really caught the attention of both friends was the fact that the body was never actually found, even though search parties had been looking for months. All that was ever recovered of the lost pony was a broken off minty green horn and a mangled lyre which both were found floating up onto the bank of a stream flowing out of Everfree.
The whole place fell silent as a metallic coffin containing the two recovered items was carried through the crowd. Even the light tan mare with the candy like mane that had been sobbing the whole time held her cries to watch four morgue workers lower the box into the freshly dug grave. The same song that Dash had heard going home the other day after the Wonderbolt show was being played by a small orchestra off to the side of the funeral. In Finem had said it was a composition written by Lyra herself, a project she had been particularly proud of in life.
The coffin hit the dirt at the bottom of the pit with a subtle ‘thud’, shaking some of the loose earth on the walls of the grave free. The tan pony in the front of the group began to cry again as her friends tried to comfort her. The minister said a few things and ended the service as quickly as he could so he could finally go home after a long day’s work. Shortly after, the group began to disperse and go home themselves.
Eventually In Finem spoke up “Well it certainly has been a pleasure talking with you Miss Dash, but I’m afraid you must excuse me, you see, I have a box to bury.” He said grabbing a shovel that had been resting against a tombstone in his mouth. As he trotted toward a pile of loose dirt next to the hole in the ground a disturbing smile began to form on the corners of his lips.
Pinky tapped dash on the shoulder and spoke up “Come on Dashie, let’s get out of here.” The pink pony’s usually curly mane had started to go flat and her normal bubbly expression had disappeared. “I don’t like funerals very much” she said.
Rainbow Dash looked back at the stallion who she had been talking with. She tried not to show it, but she found his lack of sorrow and even more, his smug contentment, unsettling. She didn’t hesitate to follow Pinky Pie out of the cemetery and back to town where they could get something to fill their stomachs.
In Finem had volunteered to fill the grave once he heard he had the opportunity to. It had been a way of saying goodbye for the last time to Lyra in his eyes. Nopony protested to this mostly because nopony wanted to pay a gravedigger to do the job for him, those jobs can be expensive when business is as slow as it is digging graves.
It didn’t even take In Finem fifteen minutes to fill the grave with fresh earth in his excitement. Upon placing the last few shovel loads of dirt into their proper position, he let out a long satisfied sigh. He patted the fresh earth with the end of his shovel, proud of the job he had done. In Finem took in the scene for a minute, and then tapped the grey headstone overlooking the fresh grave. It read;
Here lies
Lyra Heartstrings
A prospect in life,
And an inspiration in death
The simplicity of the inscription made In Finem chuckle, although he knew it was complete bull. Lyra had never been anything close to a prospect and the only thing she ever inspired was the local term for “strange obsessions”. None the less; Bon Bon had specifically ordered the inscription to be worded that way precisely. Sometimes Bon Bon’s love for the unicorn could blur her vision from the truth, or so In Finem thought.
Thinking about Bon Bon, he began to wonder where the mare had gotten off to. After looking around he spotted her a few grave rows over weeping into the dirt. Walking over to her, he thought of what would be best to say to a pony that had lost the love of their life and didn’t even have a body to burry. He decided on nothing, so, he just sat next to her leaning against an old faded tombstone waiting for Bon Bon to speak first.
“Why did she have to go so young?” she eventually asked him through her barely controllable sobs.
In Finem wanted to scoff at the question but he knew better, so instead he said “The world works in strange ways, but I’m sure she’s happy now, wherever she is.” He then put his hoof around Bon Bon and patted her back while he led her out of the cemetery. Upon reaching the rusted gates of the cast iron fence outlining the grounds, In Finem looked back to the freshly dug grave and smiled. He always was the type of stallion that took a certain amount of pride in his work, even if other ponies didn’t always look at his efforts the same way.
chapter one, in which we learn a few things and the story begins
“Did you see the triple barrel-roll Soarin did? That was soooo awesome!”
~sigh~ “Yes Rainbow Dash, I saw it, I was right next to you throughout the whole airshow.”
“I know but it was so incredibly amazing! I just love The Wonderbolts!”
“What did you think of the show Fluttershy?”
The yellow mare looked up from the ground sheepishly as she tried to form a response to Twilights question. “Oh… I… uh, thought it was fun.”
“Well I thought it was supper duper terrific!” Pinky Pie chimed in excitedly as the four mares walked home together along the dirt road through the outskirts of Ponyville. “Too bad Applejack couldn’t make it though.” Pinky admitted, her voice dropping a little in doing so.
“Yah, but she’s been really busy since apple bucking season started.” Twilight sighed, “Sometimes I worry about that mare. Remember last year? All work and no play can’t be good for her mentally.”
Rainbow laughed “And this is coming from you!? When was the last time you played?”
Pinky couldn’t help but laugh with her friend, “Yah Twi, you gotta go play more!”
“Forgive me if I chose to spend some time making something of myself instead of always… playing…” Twilight pouted, but she was unable to resist giggling along with Pinky Pie. Her laughs tend to have that effect on other ponies. Even Fluttershy let out a few innocent chuckles.
The afternoon was coming to a close as the sun slowly dipped lower and lower in the sky, allowing the moon to rise to its proper position for the night. The group paced their way back to town in the twilight hour socializing all the way home, mostly on the airshow they were just returning from, A little on how Rarity might be doing in Canterlot on her important business trip, and some on the upcoming party Pinky was planning for the whole town.
Crickets and frogs chirped in the field next to where the road they were all walking down ran. A gentle breeze cooled the mares after spending much of that long summer day in a stadium under the hot sun. Some ominous feeling gave the whole landscape a blissful sense.
There was a soft tune drifting through the air around the four. It was a slow melody, saddening almost, but mostly it was just calm.
Not two hundred yards away from where the mares were walking was a large boulder. Atop it sat a faded minty/grey colored unicorn with a small, stringed instrument. She was lost deep in thought and as the group passed her by, she just sat there, plucking away at the miniature harp with her telekinesis, allowing one blissful note to sing out after another.
Rainbow Dash seemed to notice the playing as she started to fall in love with the simple tune of the song. It brought a smile to Rainbows face and put her mind at ease, happiness slipping into her already delighted mind. ‘What a wonderful day’ she thought to herself as she embraced her friends one final time before splitting off from the group to head to her own house before the night fully set in.
“Ya sure you don’t wanna go and get a mug ‘a cider Dashie?” Pinky called out after Dash as she started in the other direction.
“Na, I got weather patrol early tomorrow morning. Maybe tomorrow night.” Dash called back before shooting off into the distance. All the way home Rainbow Dash hummed the soft melody to herself, letting her mind drift off with the gentle beat as she flew.
,,,
What happens when we die? Do we cease to exist entirely, or do we become something else completely? Do we go to a heaven or a hell? Maybe we just continue to exist, unaware of our own fatality. Maybe we are just sent to another universe where we lived, never actually dying, but instead living on forever in our own little world. If that’s the case I suppose I missed my ride out of this universe.
I can’t say I had a bad life, just a short one. Sure I miss being alive, Ide do almost anything to go back, to be with my love, to eat wonderful foods, to play wonderful music, to breath wonderful air, just to live, even for one day. That would be just… wonderful, but that’s not going to happen any time soon, so I just have to learn to cope with what I am now. Sooner or later though I’ll either move on or go back. Not that I’m suffering here, but this is still no way to exist, not for anypony. As much as I hate to admit it, I’m probably what most would consider… restless.
I was watching the light of day disappear before me. The fading sun lit the sky up in an array of colors before it finally sank below the horizon. All of its color was still reflecting in the clouds even after it was gone, leaving behind a truly beautiful sight for me to soak up.
Then, almost out of nowhere, a voice spoke out.
“Lyra Heartstrings” it said, and I almost jumped at the sudden mention of my name.
I looked around to see who had disturbed my deep thought. Sure enough there was a large, dark raven resting just next to me
“Hurm, oh… hey death”
“Lyra, what are you thinking about Lyra?” the creature asked in a raspy voice that would send shivers down my spine had I not been so accustomed to it already. What I hadn’t gotten use too however, was the way it talked so clearly without the slightest movement of its beak.
“Why do you always say my name like that? You don’t have to constantly say Lyra Lyra Lyra, I know you’re talking to me.”
“What are you thinking about Lyra Heartstrings?” he repeated.
“Nothing” I sighed, defeated by the black birds constant use of my name.
“Something…” he said without the slightest emotion… or even interest.
“Why didn’t I get a sunset?”
“A sunset?”
“Yah, before I died, why couldn’t I have made any colors?”
“Colors?”
“Yah, something noticeable, something beautiful.”
“Beautiful?”
“Never mind” I sighed.
“You can still make Beautiful Lyra Heartstrings. Than when you are done, we can leave.”
Suddenly I felt terrified, although I tried not to show the sprite of death as much.
“B-but… I don’t want to g-go yet.”
“When do you want to go Lyra?”
“Not now!” By this time I was practically suffering from a panic attack.
“Ok Lyra Heartstrings, not now.” And with that he flew away, but not forever. I knew someday I would have to follow him, but for now I had to make my demise worth something. I had to make some colors.
‘’’ From the author’’’
I should source the image so, thank you Google, I have no idea where it was originally made. But if anypony knows of a more suiting picture for the story, Ide be more than happy to check it out.
Also, if anypony feels they have some time for editing, I’m desperately in need of an editor.
Lastly, as always, critique, comments, concerns, all that good stuff is welcome.
Hope you enjoyed chapter one,,,
