The Game of Immortality - Rewritten
— The Game of Immortality —
Colgate continued down the same, well-used road that she had walked down many times in the past, looking over her shoulder at the faded and fading memories of the lives that she had lived, each time lived with the same name that nopony ever questioned. Past loves and old friends were pressed up against an invisible barrier, their eyes casting the saddest of looks at her as they futilely tried to reach her with the words that their mouths moved around. She turned back towards the road, not needing to hear what they were likely screaming at her from beyond the veil. She already knew what it was, what they wanted from her. It was something she had tried before to give once before and found that she couldn’t: herself.
So instead, she turned back to the road before her, looking on to the landscape that stretched on for miles. It never changed, no matter how far she trotted down that road. There was always the same few trees scattered here and there, looking like rotting fingers of the earth that were reaching for the gentle twinkling lights that hung above everything. Whenever she found herself growing tired, Colgate often perched herself on one of the trees by the road and stared into the glittering sky. She never remained there for long, however, as being still allowed her time to think deeply, something she wished to avoid at all costs lest she be cast into the depths of depression.
Hers wasn’t an easy life to lead. Many times along this same road she found herself lingering too long and just wanting to end it all, but she knew she wouldn’t be able to even if she tried. Immortality was a curse after all, one that wouldn’t allow for such an easy way to be free of it. Sure, she could step off the road and go off into the wild-looking landscape but there was always another road there, waiting for her to walk down its cobbled path.
Colgate!
The sound seemed out of place here, where she only had the steady clack of her hooves on the stones to keep her company. It called to her, though not anything like the desperate calls of the memories behind her. It wasn’t pleading or begging, only alarmed. She turned back to look at the faded colors of the ponies that all resided within her past lives, studying each of the faces that hadn’t been worn away by the sands of time, which was too few for her taste. She hated herself a little more each time one of them faded away, another pony that she had shared a lifetime with being lost to her eternal tormenter.
Colgate!?
Try as she might, Colgate couldn’t suppress the sigh that welled up inside of her at the increasing urgency in the call. Even though she hated this place, she hated leaving it even more. Leaving it meant something much, much worse.
Colgate, wake up!
She ripped her gaze from the desperate faces, instead facing where her hooves were bound to take her whether she wanted it or not. Colgate began trotting down the steadily-winding path, determined to not turn around again until she had returned to this place again. Tears marred her vision as she got closer and closer to where she knew it would appear. Just then, as the first tear made its way down her cheeks, a light flashed into existence. She didn’t even bat an eye as it grew larger and larger, only pushing her trot into a full-tilt gallop. The voices of the ponies behind her were suddenly audible, but she only caught one word as she was enveloped by a pure, white light that obliterated any sort of feeling.
“Colgate? Wake up already, geez!” The white glow slowly receded from her vision as a pair of hooves rocked her back and forth urgently. As more and more color rushed in to replace the blank canvas that she saw, Colgate could make out two sets of hooves in front of her face. One of the sets was mint-green while the other was a pleasant tan color. A few more passing moments of vision-clearing revealed their legs to be slender and thin, though the tan pony’s legs were a little pudgier than the other’s. “Did you overdose on toothpaste this morning or what?”
She looked up into the golden eyes of the mint-green pony, taken aback a little at how mischievous those bright yellow orbs were. Her mouth slowly opened as she tried to form a reply, though the only thing that left it was a high-pitched squeak. “Is that a yes, Colgate?” The mare couldn’t help but giggle as Colgate shook her head furiously side to side. “Yeah, whatever. You totally did. Hey Bon Bon, do you have anything you could give her?” The two mares shared a smile as the tan one, Bon Bon was her name apparently, reached a hoof into her bag.
“I sure do, Lyra. Let me get it.” The two shared a quick giggle and another evil smile before looking back at Colgate with obviously not-innocent-yet-innocent faces.
Lyra and Bon Bon, huh? Those are pretty names.
“All right, here it is.” Bon Bon trotted up to where Colgate had managed to push herself into a sitting position, holding out a brightly colored piece of foil, smiling widely at the unicorn’s confusion. After a few moments of awkward staring, she rolled her eyes and ripped away the foil to reveal a spherical lump of chocolate. “Want a sweet?” A smile of expectation worked its way onto Bon Bon’s face as Colgate stared blankly at the tasty treat. A couple of seconds passed, wherein anypony nearby could have heard the two friends counting inside their heads expectantly, waiting for the reaction. One. Two. Three.
“Eeeeeeegh, no way!” Colgate scrabbled away from the proffered candy, nearly swatting it out of the tan hoof that held it out. “Do you have any idea what those can do to your teeth!?”
Bon Bon’s expression suddenly turned serious as she looked over to Lyra, spoiled only by the fact that there was laughter dancing in her eyes. “Yeah, Lyra, I think she’s gonna be fine.”
The unicorn returned the expression in kind, her deadpan face alight with a buried glee. “I think so too, Bon Bon.”
All it took was one mutual glance back at poor Colgate to set them off, their laughter echoing as they leaned into each other for support. Even though the joke was at her expense, she couldn’t help but smile with them, even if it was a little reluctant. Lyra and Bon Bon, huh? They seem like good friends. Her smile faltered as it finally hit her, the fact that she had taken over another pony’s life seamlessly. It was like the other pony had never existed, and instead Colgate had been friends with these two before.
It’s always been like that, being instantly assimilated into her new life. It was as if the ponies she had been with were her lifelong friends. Every single time she exited the void, she was a completely different pony, yet exactly the same. It was like she slipped into their life and stole it away. She hated it; hated the feeling of being somepony she wasn’t. As time passed, however, she grew to accept it. What’s the point of fighting something you can’t fight? She ignored the jabbing pain of sadness that was tearing at her heart and shook her head. Nothing to do but keep going and make as much as a difference as I can.
Another round of giggles rent the air as Colgate pushed herself up and began brushing herself off with a hoof. Ignoring the laughter, she gave up trying to get clean using her hoof and resorted to her magic, focusing on the particles of dirt that clung to her and pulling them away to amass in the air before her as a compacted ball of filth. Depositing the ball on the ground, she trotted over to her new friends who were still holding their hooves over the other’s shoulders to keep upright. An eye roll was needed here, one that Colgate was all-too-happy to provide, even though it brought out another wave of muted snickers. “Come on, girls, enough jokes at my expense. Let’s get going.”
A comical throat-clearing was enough to get her to stop and turn around, her questioning glance being met with another round of giggles and hooves-over-mouths. “Uh, Colgate… The house is that way.” Bon Bon pointed in the opposite direction that Colgate had been trotting. “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Of course I am!” She cursed herself for trying to lead the way home, flushing with embarrassment at the look Lyra and Bon Bon had shared, concern plain on their faces. “I was just… uh… testing you!” Testing them? Really?
“Oh, a test, huh?” Lyra trotted up to Colgate and poked her nose. “Well, I have one for you! What is four-legged, blue, and doesn’t know how to lie?” The mint-green unicorn’s smile grew even wider as Colgate gave her a flat glare, eventually dissolving into laughter as the latter huffed and set off in the direction Bon Bon, who was also laughing on Colgate’s other side, had pointed her in. After a few minutes of pointedly ignoring the two ponies she had been lumped with, Colgate was surprised by Lyra’s hoof nudging her side. “Hey, you know I was just joking, right?”
To anypony else who happened to spare a glance for the trio of ponies on the road, it would appear that one of the unicorn’s simply froze in place and then flipped over into the dirt. To Colgate, however, it was by design. After Lyra had finished rolling over a few times, she regarded the blue unicorn with hurt. “What in Equestria was that fo—“ Whatever she had been about to say was silenced as Colgate tackled her back into the ground, sending them both rolling into a small ditch on the side of the road. As they rolled in the dirt, struggling to better one another, Bon Bon looked on with worried eyes as she tried to decide which pony needed more help. By the time she had reached her decision, Colgate had already come out on top of the scuffle. She smiled down at the teary-eyed Lyra, who instead offered a glare in return. “What was that for!?”
Without warning a light-blue hoof shot downward towards Lyra, who cringed away at the sudden advance. Colgate couldn’t help but chuckle as she ruffled her friend’s mane good-naturedly. After picking herself up off the ground, she reached down to help the pony she had mercilessly knocked down back to her own hooves. Once that was done, she promptly drew Lyra into a hug and giggled at the latter’s confusion. “That, dear Lyra, was payback.” Colgate pulled her hoof away and retreated a bit, making a huge production of looking at her newly dirt-covered body. “I look filthy! It’s almost as if I’ve been rolling around in the dirt.”
Lyra mimicked the action, though with less theatrics. “Yeah, me too. I find it to be something of a surprise, considering I’ve not been near any dirt at all today.” Her faked Canterlot-esque accent hung in the air for a few seconds as they stopped and looked at each other, lighting the fuse that quickly exploded into laughter. They hung onto each other for what seemed like ages until Bon Bon stalked over to them and huffed angrily.
“All right, girls, if you’re both done terrifying me, can we go home now? It’s getting kind of dark.” Just then, an icy wind chose that moment to blow over them. “And cold.” Bon Bon’s addition to her statement only underlined the fact that they were all shivering. As they trotted home, the three mares found themselves pressed up against one another, after Colgate had removed the dirt from Lyra and herself, for warmth as the streetlamps that shone overhead hardly provided any heat despite their deceptively warmly glowing light. They reached the apartment building that they had been walking towards for what seemed like hours, shuddering gratefully at the warmth after they closed the semi-rusted door behind them.
“Oooooh, that’s nice.” Colgate smiled at her friends before gesturing for them to lead the way up the stairs, all of them making sure to keep silent so as to not awaken the sleeping residents. Within a few minutes, Colgate found herself with a face full of pony-rears. Backing away frantically, she gave an embarrassed smile at Lyra and Bon Bon, who were both looking at her with a mix of concern and amusement. Bon Bon leaned over and whispered something to the mint-green mare, who in turn let out a short giggle. Then the door was opened.
In an instant, Colgate seized her target with a magical grip, forcing her into the room and silencing her frantic shout with another spell. With a sadistic smile upon her face the entire time, Colgate slowly dragged Bon Bon over to the bathroom with Lyra watching the whole time. The captive pony’s whimpers of terror suddenly found voice again as her eyes found Colgate’s. “What are you gonna do to me!?”
Despite her manic smile, Colgate’s voice was creepily calm as she answered Bon Bon’s question. “Payback for you too, I’m gonna brush. Your. Teeth.” Her smile grew wider as the fear in her friend’s eyes dissolved into panic, the owner of said eyes turning to the other pony in the room, who only shook her head and smiled.
Nearly an hour later, the door to the bathroom crashed open and a very disgruntled Bon Bon staggered out with her tongue hanging from her mouth. After climbing up onto her bed and throwing the glass of water that had been set on the bedside table into her mouth (minus the glass of course), she shot a glare at Colgate, who had just waltzed out of the bathroom with a frayed toothbrush and a now-empty tube of toothpaste held aloft by her magic. Once the items had been tossed into the garbage, Colgate shot a look over at Lyra, who was watching Bon Bon scrub at her tongue with her hooves in a vain attempt to remove the foul taste of fluoride from it. “What about you? Did you brush?”
Lyra simply smiled and lifted up her hoof, mimicking brushing her teeth to indicate that she had already done so before going back to tuning her lyre. Colgate in turn looked back towards Bon Bon, who had given up on her tongue-brushing and instead began to look daggers at the dentist. “Revenge is sweet, but not as sweet as this!” She revealed a brightly wrapped piece of candy for Bon Bon to see, smiling at how the earth pony had frozen at the sight of one of her precious candies being in the hooves and an enemy. “So sweet and sugary, something somepony whose teeth were just brushed can’t have. I think I’ll have to have one.” Her magical tendrils unwrapped the candy slowly, almost tenderly, so as to bring out the most agonized look in Bon Bon’s eyes possible. This is soooo worth the possible cavities. Colgate popped the ball of chocolate into her mouth, savoring both the explosion of flavor and Bon Bon’s helpless whimper. Mmm, Bon Bon really does make the best candy.
She opened her mouth to tell her friend just that, but suddenly her words were muffled with the mouthful of the pillow that had been launched into her face. After peeling said pillow from her body, Colgate glared at the pony responsible for throwing it. Bon Bon’s returning glare was almost comical as she readied another pillow, her tongue still hanging from her mouth and flapping around every time she moved. As the second projectile was made airborne, Colgate was already leaping to the side to avoid it and launching her own counterattack. Not only did her attack connect, but Colgate’s body also connected with Lyra’s.
The first pillow war of apartment 2B had begun, each of its participants giggling madly as they threw feather-filled implements of battle back and forth. Unfortunately, their battles didn’t last long as they were forced to come to a diplomatic truce under threat of a larger power, also known as the irate stallion that was in the neighboring apartment who had threatened to call the police unless they had resolved the conflict by peaceful measures.
Colgate propped herself up on the bed, catching the ripped-open-on-one-side pillow before it could hit the ground and spill the rest of its downy insides all over the floor. She smiled over at Lyra and Bon Bon, who in turn smiled back from over on Lyra's bed. At one point they had formed an alliance against Colgate and had built themselves a pillow fortress. They looked at each other before finally knocking down the wall of fluff and each pulling out the things they enjoy from where they had fallen onto the floor; Lyra with her lyre and Bon Bon with her candy tin.
After suppressing a yawn, Colgate got up and trotted wearily to the bathroom to brush her teeth. When she emerged from the white-tiled room, both of her friends had somehow fallen asleep, each of them holding what seemed to be the other’s hoof. She herself slid into her own bed, allowing her eyes to finally slide closed. One thought followed her into the world of dreams. Lyra and Bon Bon, my new friends.
Lyra and Bon Bon, my old friends. She gently closed the scrapbook, smiling at the absolutely wretched design that somepony had somehow thought looked good on the front of the book. Lyra had been suckered into buying the ugly thing ages ago when they all used to go for daily walks through the marketplace, which was always bustling with activity. Colgate couldn’t help but chuckle at how stubborn her friend was, even in memory. Whenever that mare got an idea in her head that she was going to do something, not even the Princess could have ordered it out of her mind.
She smiled as she went back to that marketplace again, though this time Bon Bon, the other mare of their little trio, had been able to smack some sense into their stubborn friend. She wouldn’t have had this scrapbook, that’s for sure. Even though she thought it would serve a much better purpose brightening a dump somewhere, Colgate had held on to it even after Lyra and Bons had gotten hitched and trotted off to Ponyville to start a family. After all, where else would she get her memories stored?
Memories. That’s all she had of them these days.
They had both died of what ponies called a stroke, though Colgate would have rather just called it old age. It suited those two, really, to have died from something that’s so simple and down to earth. That’s pretty much the way they were too. Happy, down to earth, and destined to be together forever. Even in death. Another pang struck her as she recalled the vows that the ever-poetic Lyra had sung out during their wedding, within which Colgate had obviously been selected to be both of their best mares. That’s what she had said too, even in death they still won’t part.
She lifted a hoof to brush away the dirt from the tombstones in order to reveal the words that had been chiseled by skilled hooves only to be worn away in just a few years’ time. Even in Death, was what was on Lyra’s, which was then completed on Bon Bon’s headstone, We shall not part.
Even in death, we shall not part. Together forever. Colgate wiped away a tear that had somehow made its way onto her face, smiling despite the pain that tore at her heart. “I bet you two are holding hooves down there, aren’t you?” She patted one of the mounds good-naturedly before returning her gaze to the stones, where the phrase lingered against the sands of time and the forces of nature.
After what seemed like ages of simply staring at the slabs of worked granite, Colgate allowed the fatigue to grip her. It had been a long time coming, though she knew it would be soon. Part of her was almost glad that it was time, because the pain of it all was ripping closer and closer to her heart. Sometimes, you just have to let go, Colgate. The darkness that had begun to fill her vision was obliterated by another wave of white.
It’s time to start anew.
Colgate continued down the same, well-used road that she had walked down many times in the past, looking over her shoulder at the faded and fading memories of the lives that she had lived, each time lived with the same name that nopony ever questioned. There were two new ponies there, both of them holding a crisp clarity that none of the others possessed. Seeing them again was like a love-hate relationship, though instead of love and hate it was pain and happiness. There was a sick, twisted sort of joy to see her older friends there, but there was a stabbing, ripping pain as well. Having them behind that barrier meant that they wouldn’t even talk to her again and that she would have to refuse them for ages until they faded away. She hated it, just as she hated the last time she had returned.
Hers wasn’t an easy life to lead, though she tried her best.
That’s when another flash of light blinded her, though it wasn’t the usual white that she was used to. This time, there was more than just the ringing in her ears. There was a pair of voices, shouting at her in the way only her friends could.
Keep your head up high, Colgate!
Keep your sights straight forward!
Soon you’ll see!
There’s more to life than this game of immortality!
Tears that she didn’t know were there streamed down her face as she nodded to her two friends, slowly backing away from them. They were right, after all, like they usually were. She couldn’t just give up. Almost every time she went into the real world, she was lumped with somepony who needed something desperately. This time, it was her. She needed a valuable lesson, and by Celestia she learned it.
Life isn’t about how long you live or even how well you live. It’s about the ponies you touch along the way that really counts.
And she had a lot more lives to live, after all.
