Cheating Death

Chapters

Ch. 1 White
Ch. 2 Water
Ch. 3 Remembrance
Ch. 4 Truth
Ch. 5 Growth
Ch. 6 Cheating Death
Act II
Epilogue

Ch. 1 White

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Edited by HoovesMcCoy, AuthorGenesis, and Anonymous

Chapter 1 - White

White. All I could see was white. White above and below, to my left and right. And there I stood—at least I thought I was standing—while I tried to figure out where I was. I had probably died. Funny, I really should have been panicking, but here I was floating in a void like it was no big deal. At least, I assumed I was floating, I could have been laying down or spinning like a top. I was probably in shock, but how could I be in shock if I was dead? Then I felt like I somehow couldn’t be dead, not yet at least. Maybe that was panic finally setting in?

“You sure yammer a lot for a corpse.”

I whipped my head around to face the voice and saw a human-shaped figure looming over me. It was wearing a black robe that hung open to reveal a “Blue Öyster Cult” T-shirt underneath. His face was… I can’t describe it. No, I literally can’t describe it. Every time I looked to where his head should have been, I knew I saw a face, but I just couldn’t remember how it looked. It was like the memory vanished from my mind the moment it was formed.

“Do you always talk to yourself this much? Perhaps you are one of those people who are so self-involved, you narrate your own existence?”

Wait… You can hear me?

“Maybe I can, maybe I cannot. Who can say?”

That’s kind of disturbing.

“Well you are the one who is broadcasting his thoughts all over.”

Argh, this guy was irritating. Alright, ‘Don’t think out loud, don’t think out loud’ I told myself. I repeated it in my mind over and over. Then I looked at the figure and thought, “Man, are you ugly.”

“So is your face.”

I mentally screamed and the figure laughed in response. I was more than irritated. Who was he to come in here, read my thoughts, and insult me?

“I bet you are wondering who I am?”

Well duh, I just thought that... was he still reading my mind?

“No, I cannot read your mind. I cannot read minds at all. You really do not understand the concept of bluffing do you?”

If he was just bluffing, how did he know exactly what I was thinking?

“You humans are very VERY easy to read.”

I scowled and the figure laughed at my reaction. This guy was a troll of epic proportions.

“Eayhahaaaaaaa.” The figure's laughter tapered off and he glanced at a non-existent wrist watch and sighed. “As much fun as this diversion has been, I do have a schedule to keep.If you would be so kind as to follow me.” The figure turned into the void, and started to walk away from me.

I hesitated a few seconds and considered my options, of which there were none. So I jogged for a moment to catch up. I caught up to the figure and we strolled at a leisurely pace. There was a distinct lack of sound from our walking, which I chalked up to the whole ‘being dead thing’. Speaking of which, I still felt underwhelmed by it all. I was expecting much more than… this.

“I am Death by the way, nice to meet you,” the figure said nonchalantly. The words snapped me out of my musings. It looked as though he was waiting for a response.

“I’m Felix. Felix Jackson.” It felt odd giving my name so freely to Death—and shouldn’t he know my name as well?—but everything was feeling kind of surreal at this point so I went with it.

“Well Felix, I will be able to deal with your case in just a moment, but first we have another soul to pick up.” As soon as Death finished speaking—I still can’t get over that fact—I saw a figure in the distance. It looked rather short, and as we got closer, I realized that it was standing... on four legs. When I got close enough to make out all the details I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. There before me was an honest to God pony.

Oh, I’m not talking about those things you see at the fair that give rides to children. I’m talking about the ones from that show “My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic”. Big head and eyes? Check. Ridiculous color-scheme? Check, it was an emerald green. Mark on its rump? Check, it was a picture of a pony sailing through a hoop of fire. It was a female pegasus pony to be specific. In hindsight, I really should have given that pony a great big hug, but I was too shocked by her existence to even think of that. I was something of a Brony, a male fan of the cartoon My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. My sister introduced me to the show, and I latched onto the MLP craze like superglue after only a few episodes.

We stopped in front of the figure, and she looked straight at Death. A sudden realization came over the pegasus, and her head drooped. “I’m dead, aren’t I?” she said rather sullen. My heart at this burst, and I wanted to console the little girl (Even though she was not so small, she was about the size of a large dog or average wolf and her head could easily reach my shoulders) but thankfully Death moved between me and the pegasus, preventing me from making a fool of myself.

“I am afraid so.” Death had a tone of understanding and sympathy to its voice. It was a stark contrast from my introduction to the otherworldly being.

“Hey, how come you’re being so nice to her?” I asked a little insulted that Death wasn’t being his snarky self.

“That is because you are not a cute little pony.” Death said flatly looking right at me. I swear even though I could “see” his face, Death was smirking at me. The pegasus had not heard this comment and was instead transfixed on me. She looked extremely bewildered at my existance.

“Wha- what the heck is that?” She said pointing a hoof at me. GASP, she is startled by my appearance! Oh, woe is me to have been cursed to look horrific in the eyes of a fair maiden! And even though I didn’t believe that for a second, I was at least a little crestfallen at her reaction to me.

“Oh do not mind him. He is just another case I have to take care of.” Death said standing up. “Now, if the two of you would be so kind as to follow me into my office.” As soon as Death said those words a Door stood before us. It looked like a solid oak wood door with a window in the top half. On the glass read: ‘Death-13493B: Afterlife Placement and Reinsertion Department.’ Death opened the door and walked right in, the pony was the first to follow as I still stood there dumbstruck by not seeing the door earlier. “You coming slowpoke?” I snapped out of my stupor again thanks to Death’s chide attitude.

Walking through the doorway, I was surprised to see an office on the other side. It wasn’t just an ordinary office, it was styled like it was straight out of a Dick Tracy comic book. The neon signs outside, the dirty windows, the mess of papers everywhere, and a small rotating fan on the ceiling that had an annoying ‘wirwirwir’ sound coming from it. All of it added to that feel of an office in New York City.

“Wow, you really must love the 40s with this kind of style going.” I commented.

Death sat down behind his desk and looked up at me surprised. “Oh really? That is what you see? I have not had someone visualize that in many years.”

“What do you mean ‘That is-‘ gah! I mean, ‘That’s what I see?’” The way Death refused to use contractions was starting to get to me.

“Well everyone sees my office a little differently, it is usually a representation of the persons soul. For example, miss?” Death motioned to the pegasus and she turned to him. “What do you see my office looking like?”

“Um, we’re in the middle of a field.” She said rather unsure.

My face fell flat. “What?”

“Actually it looks like the field I used to practice my stunt flying when I was just a little filly.” She mused. She stared off into the distance; she must have been reliving old memories.

“You see,” Death chuckled, “it is different for everyone. In fact to the miss right here I look like a pony with a black cloak, do I not?” The pegasus nodded. “So as I said everything here even how I look is a representation of your soul.”

I was quite intrigued by this. A ‘representation of my soul’? Does that mean deep down I love old detective stories? Although, that would explain my pension for trench coats and fancy fedoras.

“Now miss, what is your name?”, Death asked as he pulled out a very large book from a shelf.

“Gusty Rush, sir.” the Pegasus stated. While Death flipped through his book, Gusty started looking nervous. I would be to if I was being judged by Death.

“Ah here we are,” exclaimed Death, pointing to some writing on his book that was in a font so small I couldn’t even see spaces between lines “Gusty Rush, death at 30 years via performance accident.” Gusty looked heartbroken at this.

“So I died… right in the middle of the show?” She started to tear up. I wanted to reach over and comfort her, but my own awkwardness stop me. Death then bent forward and patted her on the shoulder.

“Hey now, you died doing what you loved. Is that not a good thing?” Death tried to reassure her.

“But all those people in the crowd, and the foals watching, they must have been horrified.” Gusty was near bursting and she shook in grief from the pain she must have caused from ponies witnessing her death.

“There, there.” Death said rubbing her shoulder in support speaking in a soft, caring voice. “I will tell you what, I do not normally do this but I am going to tell you what your death REALLY did.” Gusty looked up still sniffing at Death. “I will have you know that because of witnessing your death, three of those fillies went on to become famous stunt fliers like yourself. One went on to write a bestselling novel about your life. You become one of Equestria’s mostfamous fliers immortalized in the Hall of the Greats. And those are just the highlights, many more remember how you always did any stunt no matter the risk, for as you said ‘If there is no risk in how I live, then what is the point of experiencing life?’”

Gusty actually started to smile, her eyes still full of tears but her face had changed to that of one of joy. “That actually happens?” she asked with a wavering voice.

“As true as the rivers of time it is.” Death said with smirk. He leaned back and wrote a small note in his book. “Gusty Rush,” Death paused, then motioned to his right, “enjoy the afterlife.” A bright light erupted to my left and I held up my hand to shield my eyes from it. Dang, I thought, Heaven must have one heck of an electric bill.

“Thank you.” Gusty said and she leapt up and hugged Death. Now THERE is something I thought I’d never see. A pony hugging Death. What’s next, Cthulhu playing with a kitten? Death patted her on the back and she jumped down. “Thank you so much.” She turned to me then and looked kind of forlorn. “And good luck to you sir.” She then walked off into the light and disappeared. The light then vanished as abruptly as it appeared.

“Now then,” Death spoke as he grabbed a different book off the shelf, “Felix Jackson…Felix Jackson.” Death murmured as he scanned down the line of incredibly small text. “Ah here we are! Felix Jackson, Death at …” Death stopped as he looked at me, then back to the paper. “Now wait a minute here, how old are you?”

“Um, 25.” I stated plainly. I could swear Death’s eye twitched, but I wouldn’t know as I couldn’t remember if he had eyes at all.

“How did you die?” He asked a little forcefully. The question hit me hard and forced me back to what happened just before I awoke in the white void. Images flashed before my mind as I remembered what happened, all of it.

“I was heading home, waiting at the light rail station, it was really hot.” As I said this my mind flashed the images in my head. They were so vivid the office melted away and I saw the station as if I was a third party narrating a story. “I was reading a story on my cell phone, and I looked up, the train was coming.” I started to sweat; before my eyes the scene transpired as I spoke it, like watching a movie about my life. “There was this girl, no more than nine, she had these rollerblades and was skating up and down the station.” My voice became rough and crackly “She shouldn’t have been doing that, WHY WEREN'T HER PARENTS WATCHING HER?” My voice broke and my pupils shrank. “She slipped, over the edge, the train was too close, I ran.” I just snapped and my voice became monotone. “I jumped down, she wasn’t moving, I picked her up, I saw a light, I turned…”

I sat there silently for who knows how long. My mind was reliving that moment over and over. I had died and I couldn’t even save one life. I felt wracked, worthless. I slammed my fist on the desk. “It’s my fault she’s dead. I failed.”

Death leaned back and chuckled. I shot him a stare that was filled with malice for laughing at my grief. “Calm down. You did not fail.” Death said.

“Wha-?” I was confused. I remember only picking her up and then being hit.

“It says here that when the train was about to hit you, you threw her to safety, all she suffered from was a broken leg and a concussion.”

“So then, I actually did something right?” I was overjoyed, sure I wouldn’t leave a lasting impression like Gusty may have on her world, but I saved one life and that was enough.

“No, actually you did something wrong.” Death stated plainly.

“What?” And now I was back to being confused.

“You were not supposed to save her. Infact, you were supposed to keep reading on your cell phone and not realize what had happened until after the train was over her.”

I was mortified, “You mean I was to let her die?! That’s horrible!”

“Actually she would have been just fine.”

“Wha-?”

“She was small enough and placed right between the rails, the train would have passed right over her and she would have only suffered a concussion from her fall.”

“……WHAAAAAAA?”

“This event was supposed to be a wake up call for you and cause you to improve your life. All you seem to have done is given a little girl a broken leg and made yourself into hamburger.” Death sat back and chuckled. “It is quite humorous when you think about it.”

“NO!” I shouted in exasperation. “NO IT'S NOT! You’re telling me I died, WHEN I DIDN’T NEED TO?!”

“Pretty much. In fact the chances of aman like you actually deviating from the plan were quite small, this was basically a fluke.”

I slumped back. Great going Felix, you do something wonderful and you find out you do the ONE THING the universe didn’t expect you to do! Well this depressed me to no end.

“Aw, cheer up, technically you were not supposed to die yet so guess what, you are going back!” Death said in a chipper tone.

“Going… back? Didn’t you say I was just turned into hamburger?” I asked incredulously.

“Well, TECHNICALLY, you were hit by the train and flew through the air, crashing and snapping your spine. I just added the hamburger part to make it sound flashier.” said Death, advertising my death like it was a product.

“So you are going to send me back as a vegetable? Lovely.” I was even less thrilled than before.

“No. No. Nothing like that. With just a few forms, I will rewind time to right before you were hit, and alter your path so that you fly through the air and all you break is your leg. It’s much simpler paperwork than it sounds. Trust me if you were still alive it’d be impossible, can’t influence the living, free will and all that.” Death explained.

“If you can go back in time why not just alter it so things proceed like they were supposed to?” I asked, poking a hole in his logic.

“If I did that then I would have to alter the fact that the girl was injured further by you, that and the others on the trains station saw you got hit and flew through the air and broke something in your body. This way everything proceeds as it was now playing out, except you do not die! Also it is because if I were to do what you are suggesting it would take MOUNTAINS of paperwork and physical work to re-write memories and fix the situation. And there is no way in the nine circles of Hell that you will convince me to do that.” Death explained further, plugging up my logic hole. Death grabbed something from one of the drawers and set it on top of the desk. It looked like some sort of legal document.“Now then, I just need to fill out this for reinsertion into the time stream and once it's signed it will be fact.”

“Oh joy.” I said flatly. I wasn’t exactly looking forward to going back, especially knowing that my life was going to be complicated by an injury. I sighed internally, as this wasn’t exactly what I expected the afterlife to be, not that I was complaining. At least I wasn’t being dragged into the bowels of hell or something.

“Okay, and you need to return to Earth designation…… hrm, give me a second here to look this up.” Death murmured and he shifted to looking in the book where my name was.

In a flash I had an idea. An AWFUL idea.

An-awfully-amazing-yet-completely-stupid-but-if-it-works-damn-is-it-going-to-be-awesome-idea. I would have to work quickly and hope it would work. Scanning the room I looked for anything that looked out of the ordinary, I noticed a little plaque on the wall which had some golden scythe on it. “Say Death,” I said quizzically pointing to the ornament on the wall. “What is that?”

“Hrm?” Death looked where I pointed and he beamed with what I assumed was pride. (Quite literally, it was as if someone turned on a spotlight behind his head or something.) “Oh that? Pffffft. It is just a little award, that is all.” He was obviously goading me to ask him to continue. It was about as subtle as a sledgehammer to the head.

“What’s it an award for?” I asked. At this Death hopped off his desk and waltzed over to the wall. He looked at it and began droning on and on.

“It is the award for the best reaper of the millennia. Now that may seem like a long time to you, but in subjective time it is like an employee of the month reward. But what makes this so special is-” Death continued to ramble marveling at his own little piece of ego boost. While he gabbed, I slid the form and the books over to myself. Quickly I scanned through the book Gusty's name was in to find what I needed. My finger fell on her name and I slid it over to find the designation ‘Earth – Equ 547’. Quickly I scribbled on the form my destination as the same and slide everything back into the order it was originally in just as Death turned around from his long spiel. “- and that is why I always hand off those cases to the newbies down in D department. Ahhhh, memories… So, where were we again?”

“You were just about to sign the form and send me back.” I said.

“Ah yes, whelp let me speed you on your way then.” Death plopped down into his seat and picked up his quill and began to write on the form. Then suddenly he stopped.

“Wait a minute, something is wrong here.” Oh crap, he noticed. I’m screwed, so totally screwed! He’s gonna send me to hell for this! Eternal torment with no cola anywhere but cheap imitation knock off brands. “I forgot to put in a DATE on this form. Ha! Silly me.”

I sighed heavily in relief internally, ‘Dodged a bullet on that one.’ I thought.

“Okay then!”, Death said “Everything is in order, I hope you enjoy the rest of your life.” As he said this, I began to feel myself fading away. Everything I saw began to dissolve into black.

“Thanks,” I said with a smirk “I will.” Death then quickly glanced at the form again and something caught his eye.

“Wait a minute…” Death said with concern. “That is not supposed to be there! What the-?”

“Something wrong?” I asked still fading away.

“This destination you should be going to! You…” Death looked up and glared at me. If I wasn’t already dead I swear that stare could have killed me right then and there. “You did this.” Malice dripped from his voice.

“Whaaaaaat? Me?” I mocked him as now I was practically gone.

“You will not live to regret this bub! Trust me, I SHOULD KNOW.” Death yelled as he pointed a bony finger at me.

“Whaaaaat? Sorry, I can’t hear you over all the fucks that I don't have.” And upon the end of that sentence I faded from Death’s sight and became completely entrenched in black. The office was gone and instead of just a white void I was now in a black one. Then I felt a sucking sensation as if I was being catapulted across the very space of existence. My entire being was flung with such force that I remember slamming into a wall of sorts and passing out.

I awoke to the sounds of birds calling and the rustling of leaves. My body felt sore as if I was hit by a train. I then catapulted up and remembered everything that happened. My ‘death’, meeting Death and that pony, then tricking Death into sending me to what I hoped was... Equestria. I stood up and looked around, and saw I was in a forest. One that was thick with trees and shrubbery of every kind. Being the savvy mind that I was, I hypothesized that I was in the Everfree forest. However without some major evidence stating otherwise, I could have been in Alaska for all I knew. As if to confirm my location, I turned around to find that I had been thrown right into a crumbling wall of the Ancient Castle of the Pony Sisters.

“HOT DAMN!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, “Take that DEATH! I’m in Equestria, my leg isn't broken, and I’ve got four years to make up for!” I laughed in elation. All I had to do was find my way out of the forest and bing bang boom, I could finally meet real, live, ponies! If there was anyone around they would have heard a high pitch squee coming from me. After my geek spasm, I took my first step forward in the new world, and tripped and stumbled forward. “So much for ‘One small step for man’” I grumbled. Then, right where I stood not a second ago, fell a large stone. I looked up to see that it was once one of the statues that ornamented the sides of the castle. If I hadn’t moved… I shuddered at the thought.

“You’re gonna have to do better than that ya bony freak!” I shouted to the sky. Well, Death is out to get me, and I’m in a forest surrounded by death traps. One thing was for certain though, I was NOT going to die without meeting at least one pony. I had a plan, and I’ll be damned before I finish it.

Meanwhile on the outskirts of the forest…

Fluttershy had just returned from the Everfree forest from visiting Zecora. She had gone to get some medicine for some of her animals that had caught a rather nasty cold. Her ears flicked back and she turned her head to face the forest. “What was that sound?” she asked herself a little scared. “That was like no creature I have heard before.” She decided to just ignore it. After all most creatures who lived in the Everfree STAYED in the Everfree. At least, she hoped they did.

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revamp Notes:

Well here it is folks, Cheating Death! Now with less spelling and grammar errors, and better pacing!

Please give a big thanks to my editors AuthorGenesis, HoovesMcCoy, and Anonymous. These guys made this possible.

I LOVE writing for Death. Seriously, there is something about writing a guy who has done his job for a Milena and seen every type of soul, only to be a snarky paper pusher is just so FUN to write about.

Ch. 2 Water

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Edited by HoovesMcCoy, AuthorGenesis, and Anonymous

Chapter 2 - Water

When I say the words “Everfree Forest,” what comes to your mind? A haunted forest filled with ghastly creatures that want to kill you? A densely packed area crammed with as many trees and shrubs as possible? A forest which has the unfortunate implication of being pure evil? How about all the above? Well, I hate to be the one to burst your bubble, but from what I saw the forest is none of those things. If I were to describe it I’d say it looks like a normal forest you could find out in the country.

I was no botanist but I could at least tell there was more than pine surrounding me. Cedar, elm, willow, there were trees from different biomes all surrounding me, like an all you can tree buffet. The underbrush was filled with many a fern and brush, hopefully none of it poisonous. Sounds of birds and other forest creatures surrounded me in a chorus of wildlife. Thankfully the sound of a jaguar or other large animal was not one of them. In comparison to what I was expecting, this forest seemed rather tame.

I saw what looked like a wolf in the distance, however the wolf kept said distance. Which was probably a good thing for him lest he tangle with me and my fists, though admittedly I’d probably be torn to shreds. I examined the trees and bushes around me; they looked like the same kind I studied in horticulture class, so at least this world had some familiarity to it. So, chock all that scary stuff up to good storytelling and creative license between interdimensional barriers.

You may be asking me, “How are you so sure this is the Everfree then?” It might have had to do with the freakishly huge ruin behind me that was obviously the Ancient Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Which if I remember my pony history, means that I’m very deep within the Everfree, oh joy. That would mean walking, and a lot of it. Well, when trapped in a forest... make like the romans do, or something.

Only then did I start to realize just how dangerous of a situation I had gotten myself into. If I was going to survive, I would have to determine what I had at my disposal. For one, I was still in the clothes I was wearing when I had… died.

Two, while the clothes were with me, none of the objects I had were. Cell phone, wallet, loose change, bus ticket, everything that was within my pockets was gone. I guess it was true that you couldn’t take your material wealth into the afterlife. I wasn’t disappointed though. How useful was a dead and out-of-range cell phone and some foreign currency going to be in a forest?

Three, all my survival skills were from my experience as a Boy Scout and whatever I could remember from the internet. The problem was that I quit Boy Scouts years ago, and I don’t have the internet at hand to help look anything up, leaving all my skill in the hands of my memory filled with bad comedy routines and cat pictures. With my head more clear, I decided to explore the surrounding area.

The castle was impressively tall. Stone walls extended skyward while vines and other greenery grown around and up the base. The line between forest and castle had long since faded and the two were intertwined in design. A couple trees seemed to grow right out of the walls and vines hung from stone windows like curtains.

I walked around to the front of the ruined castle and found a large stairway leading toward its entrance into the building itself. This castle must have been grand back when it was in use, but now it was a ruin with holes in the walls, broken stained glass windows and a few fallen towers. The large arch that held the doors to the castle had lost one of them, while the other barely hung onto the wall with only one hinge remaining attached.

“And yet this place is still in better condition than my high school was.” I said to myself, chuckling. As interesting as this building was it was not my destination. No, my real goal—the reason why I flipped-off death and screwed with afterlife paperwork—was to find that small town which I knew so well and yet had never seen with my own two eyes, Ponyville. I laughed at myself, “Damn, if I wasn’t already in Equestria, I’d swear I’ve gone mad… Then again maybe I am and this is all a figment of my imagination.” I hit myself in the head. “Nope. I can still feel pain… also I can now taste the color green. Odd. Hope that passes.”

After confirming that this was indeed real life and not some fantasy, I proceeded to look out for nearby landslides, lest I face some harsh reality. So opening my eyes, I looked up to the sky to see… the sun directly overhead, so I guessed it was noonish. Of course I was known for horrible estimation, so I took that with a grain of salt. Now I just had to work my way backwards from how the story went in the show of how they got here to the castle.

“Okay, so it would be bridge, spooky trees, manticore, river, and then cliffs.” I mused audibly, trying to work the path that the main characters had followed in those first two episodes. “Or was it bridge, river, manticore, spooky trees, then cliffs?” Of all the times for my memory to fail me, it would have to be right now. I shrugged, since I at least knew the general direction and if there was a path or something like it, I could easily find my way out of this forest and to some civilization. I also had at least half a day to do it, so I was rather confident that I could pull that off.

What I wasn’t so sure about, was my ability to survive the wildlife. I may have not been mauled yet, but that didn't mean that a chimera wasn’t hiding behind that bush around the corner waiting to strike. I hoped that maybe, just maybe I’d be able to avoid meeting any unsavory predators on my trek. Especially manticores, that would be as dangerous as it would be cliche. Though it could be worse, I could meet a dragon, or lich, or a Jehovah's Witness. Those last ones are a tricky bunch to hide from. I chuckled at myself before moving on away from the castle.

There was a dirt path that lead away from the ruined castle. After seeing it was the only path around I began to walk down it and towards what I hoped was civilization. In just a few minutes I came to the bridge I had remembered seeing on the show, and it was just as rickety and dilapidated in real life as it was in fiction. I gave the ropes a tug and they gripped the posts they were tied to firmly. It seemed safe enough, so I placed one foot on a board. It let out a groaning creak as it supported my weight. Slowly, I moved forward each step causing the boards to strain underneath me.

“Okay, I can do this.” I reassured myself, “Just don’t look down. Don’t look down. Don’t loo- FREAKIN’ HELL IS THAT A LONG WAYS DOWN!” I grasped the ropes on either side to sturdy my now quaking legs. You know that cartoony canyon that the coyote would always fall down? This was one of those, and I didn’t think cartoon physics applied to me. Swallowing my fear, I nervously continued onward, but I had gone only a few more feet before I heard a rapid tapping right behind me, so I turned around to see there was a bird behind me. It looked like your average woodpecker but it was where it was standing that made me nervous. The woodpecker had decided to make one of the supporting beams for the bridge its current perch and it was looking right at me.

“Hey little birdy.” I said in a soft tone to it. “You shouldn’t do that to that beam it’s what’s-” The bird ignored my request and continued pecking at the ropes connected to the support beams. My eye widened in shock and I flailed at the bird motioning it to stop. “No! Nononono! Stop you stupid bird!” I implored the woodpecker. I would have moved toward it, but I was already halfway across the bridge and was unsure if running to stop it might have the bridge break under my haste. The bird stopped thankfully, it looked right at me and… smirked? I swear to God that thing SMIRKED at me! It went right back to pecking on the rope while I started to dash to the other end of the bridge.

“Crapcrapcrap!” I cried as I ran down the bridge, the boards under me groaning and splintering under my weight. Suddenly one of the boards broke and I grabbed onto both of the ropes as my right leg fell through the bridge. My heart felts as though it might jump right out of my chest as I nearly fell through the bridge. Pulling myself back up, I slowly put my foot onto the safe plank that I was standing on, only for the bridge to lurch with a snap. I looked back to see that the woodpecker had pecked through almost half of the rope, and it was starting to strain. I lunged for the other side of the bridge which was now only about ten feet ahead of me. The bridge dropped again as more rope was cut by this murderous bird. I staggered only for a second as I put all my strength into one last sprint for safety. I heard a loud SNAP behind me and I leapt forward, flying through the air like a rock. The bridge gave way beneath my feet and I sailed like a graceful blimp to the edge of the cliff. My chest slammed into the cliff-side and I scrambled to cling onto anything to keep me from falling back. I was just out of reach of the support post but luckily there was an exposed root of a tree that I was able to cling to.

“Whew, that was way too close.” I said to myself. I pulled myself onto solid ground and enjoyed the nice, safe earth. I looked over at the woodpecker on the opposite side of the cliff who was still sitting on the post from which he had tried to murder me. He took to the air, chirping. It sounded like what I could swear was a Woody Woodpecker laugh. Great, so the woodpeckers around here are murderous psychopaths who watch cartoons. The sooner I was out of this crazy forest and away from everything that wants to kill me, the better.

With the bridge behind me I was one step closer to my goal. Thankfully, there was still a path before me which I could use to guide myself out of the forest. Leaving the bridge behind, I walked further into the woods. The trees soon became much sicklier looking and increased in numbers. In addition, brush and thistle bushes increased in both size and thickness. Soon the tree tops began to cover the skyline blocking out most of the sunlight. I had to squint to be able to see, and even then my sight was still very limited. While I walked I kept a lookout for any marker or landmark that could lead me through this mess.

After an hour or so the path beneath me soon disappeared and the ground became uneven. I started looking at every object hoping that one would look the least bit interesting or different and that it could give me some sign to the direction I was moving in.

“Tree…Tree…Tree… Brush…” I said to myself realizing that everything around me was practically the same type and shape of tree. It was like God had gotten lazy and just went “Ctrl + C” and “Ctrl + V” all over the place. The scenery to this forest was becoming more repetitive than a dubstep remix of “Hey Jude”. I sighed, knowing I was now hopelessly lost in the woods. “Hehe, lost woods.” I said chuckling and started to hum a familiar jumpy tune. My mind wandered back into counting the trees as it seemed to be the only thing to break the mind numbing bore-fest that was this forest.

“Tree… Tree… Brush… Tree… Manticore… Tree… Tr-” I stopped, I was hoping that I had hallucinated for a second there. I looked behind me and unfortunately I had not had a momentary lapse in sanity. There sleeping between two trees was a slumbering manticore, and DAAAAAAMN was it big. Its body was about the size of a Hummer and its scorpion tail was curled around itself like a giant kitten. If it wasn’t such a hulking behemoth of muscle that could kill me I would have thought it was quite adorable.

The manticore purred as it slept, like the thrumming of a muted chainsaw. I slowly backed away from the creature not wanting to wake it up and decide I would make a late afternoon snack. I turned around slowly and began to tiptoe away as quietly as I could. Then having a moment of genre savviness, I looked down to check for any branches on the ground. There just so happened to be one right where I would have stepped next. I smirked at my smug self, and stepped over the branch. No sir, I wouldn’t fall to any old clichés. I then walked face first into a low hanging branch and stabbed my eye with a pinecone.

“MUTHA’ FA-” was all I shouted before I slapped my hands over my mouth to block me from screaming obscenities. I turned around hoping that I hadn’t woken up the manticore only to see its golden eyes staring right at me. It looked irritated that I had awoken it from its slumber, and then it licked its lips. I ran away screaming like a scared little girl.

As I ran I could hear the underbrush being crushed behind me as the manticore gave chase. I ran in a zigzag pattern hoping it would slow down the beast, but it seemed to just plow right through everything in its path. My heart was pounding and my eyes were darting all over trying to find an escape or something I could do to slow down the beast. As I was looking everywhere but where I was running, I tripped over an exposed root and fell right in front of a smooth-looking tree. I scrambled to my feet and turned around to see the manticore not more than ten feet away from me ready to strike.

“Now now, kitty. I’m sure you’d want something much tastier than me. I mean… I’m nothing but skin and bones!” I said trying to reason with the monster. However, it seemed content on making me its breakfast and it leaped through the air right at me. I dropped to the forest floor and narrowingly avoided its claws as they impacted with the tree. Then something happened that I didn’t expect, the tree bent. It bowed like a bendy straw and stretched backwards. The manticore was confused by this—as was I—but its confusion was immediately replaced with panic as the tree shot back to its original position and catapulted the manticore through the air and above the tree canopy. I heard its roar as it sailed through the skies and crashed into the ground about several hundred feet away.

I stood there totally baffled by what just happened. I gave the tree a flick with my finger and it bounced a little. Then I got it, it was a RUBBER TREE. I laughed at the absurdity of it, until I realized that the manticore was coming back for me, only much more angry than before. I took off running again hoping that I had a good enough lead on the manticore that I’d be able to lose him. Ahead of me I heard a sound, which I recognized as roaring water! I doubled my efforts to move ahead, since if I could cross the river the manticore would lose my scent and I’d be home free!

I broke through the tree line to see a raging river ahead of me. It looked to be about 50 feet across and I could only guess as to how deep it was. Unfortunately, there was no time for being picky, as I had a raging furry death machine behind me and my options were limited. I dove right into the river and swam for the other side. The current was quite strong and I found myself moving more downstream than across the river. I heard a roar behind me and my eyes practically bulged out of their head. On the shore I had just left was the manticore running after me as the current carried me downstream.

I started swimming downstream with the current hoping I could escape it this way. The manticore, however, was stubborn and kept up with me as I went further down the river. I swam as fast as I could, my legs kicking and my arms swinging as hard as possible. Panic was a great motivator sometimes; it’s amazing what fear of being eaten does to you. In my mind, I was reliving all those summer camp memories of swimming.

“No Jarod NO!”

“Let’s see how long you can hold your breath underwater DORK!”

Ah, childhood memories.

I stopped swimming and decided to turn around to see how far I had gotten away from the manticore and was surprised to see he had given up! The manticore just stood at the shoreline and looked at me as I drifted further away from him. Ha! He must have realized that his brute strength was no match for my superior intellect, and I bet he… Why was the manticore waving and smiling at me… And why did I hear a faint rumbling sound?

I turned around to face the direction of the current and there was a faint mist rising in the distance. My brain’s gears slowly moved as I tried to think of what I was heading toward. Then it hit me, more accurately a partially submerged tree right in my nards hit me. Then it hit me why the speed of the current had increased.

“CRAPCRAPCRAP!” I shouted. I tried to swim to shore but the current kept pulling me back. I lashed out my hands to find a stone or log that I could grab onto, but all the rocks were covered with so much algae I couldn’t even get a solid grip. I turned around to see I was nearing the crest of the waterfall. It was in this moment I decided to face my fate with as much dignity as I possibly could.

“This is BULLSHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII…” I yelled as I went over the edge. The waterfall was much higher than I anticipated and my heart practically leapt from my ribcage when I realized how high I was from the ground. The wind rushed past my ears, muting the roar of the waterfall. I closed my eyes and braced for the inevitable stop. I then hit the water with a loud crack and everything went black.

I opened my eyes to see that I was not where I once was, in fact this place looked startlingly familiar. There was nothing but white all around me and… Oh crap I just died again didn’t I?

“Oh back so soon?” said a voice that I instantly recognized. I turned around to see Death tending to a fish tank that extended infinitely into the distance. “Such a shame; I had hoped you would last longer.” Still smug as ever, Death chuckled as he floated down from the impossibly wide fish tank. “Oh well, we cannot all be perfect. Now if you would not mind coming with me…” Death held out his hand motioning for me to take it. I, however, just stood there and stared at him. This didn’t match up, since if Death wanted to, he could have taken me by force. Why was he “asking” me to come with him? Shouldn’t he have total power over the dead or something like- And that’s when my cleverness shined through a second time that day.

“I’m not dead yet am I?” I said with a wide grin at Death. He flinched for a second but immediately regained his posture.

“No, you are most certainly dead. Falling off a cliff will do that to you.”

“I fell off a waterfall.” I retorted while moving to stand up.

“Well then, you missed the water.” Death was obviously grasping at straws, I almost felt bad for the guy… almost.

“No, I think I get it. I’m not dead yet. And you want to trick me to go with you so I’ll really die!”

“FINE! Congratulations. You figured me out. Still does not change the fact that you are going to die anyway.” Death shouted as he flipped his arms in the air.

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I MEAN, you are still unconscious, and there is no way I am going to allow you to wake up.” Death said to me with that usual smug attitude of his. That meant I was trapped in some sort of dream, and I knew there was one surefire way to wake up from a dream. I walked calmly up to Death and grabbed him by his robe. “Oh what, you think you can threaten me with violence? I am not scared of you mortal.”

“Oh but that’s the beauty of it, you aren’t the one I’m scaring.” I smiled as evilly as I possibly could.

“…WHAT?” were Death’s last word as I threw him straight into the giant aquarium. The glass shattered into a million pieces all the way down as far as you could see. Then came the torrent of water as it flowed towards me like moving wall. When it collided with me I felt the water rush to my lungs and my mind lit a fire with a need for air.

I struggled to move up towards the surface, and I felt it getting brighter and warmer. My lungs ached with every stroke and I started to become lightheaded. I was moving too slow, the surface was so far away, I couldn’t do it. Then I felt a deep rumbling above me, I struggled as hard as I could to get closer to the sound. My mind began to fade back into unconsciousness. “No not when I’m this close!” I thought to myself. The rumbling started to fade as I moved closer and closer, and my world began to darken once more.

“Guaaaaah!” I inhaled as I broke the surface, then reeled back as I coughed out the water that had been plaguing my lungs. The coughing hurt badly, but I was relieved to have gotten some fresh air. I slowly paddled over to the side of the basin and flopped down on solid ground. I breathed deeply trying to catch my breath. “Oh ground… I will never leave you again.” I said between breaths. I flopped onto my back and looked up at the sky. It was much darker than it had been, and the shadows cast on the cliffside were long. It must be nearing evening, which meant I would be stuck in the forest overnight. Stuck in the Everfree, with murderous manticores and weaponized woodpeckers.

“Hehehe,” I chuckled at myself and my situation. “Like I’m gonna’ let a few animals kill me.” I stood up with my arms still very sore from all the swimming I had been doing. I looked at my current surroundings and was relieved that the forest wasn’t as dense here. In the distance I could see a mountain that stretched high into the sky and it didn’t appear to be that far away. I reasoned that that would be as good a landmark as any to head towards. Maybe I could even get a good look at the forest from up there. After wringing my shirt out of the excess water I marched toward my new goal with completely renewed and drenched vigor.

“No way in heck am I dying before I hug a pony!”

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revamp Notes:

THIS CHAPTER. Good gracious this chapter. This was by far the weakest in my opinion in the whole story. It needed to be here because Felix needed to meet the big bad ol manticore, but also because I needed to have Felix start to hint at his past.

Thankfully adding in more descriptors and a few more small comments about the world itself seemed to really flesh it out quite a bit. AuthorGenesis came up with that idea.

Ch. 3 Remembrance

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Edited by AuthorGenesis and Anonymous

Chapter 3 - Rememberance

Shouck, slop, Shouck, slop. sounded my shoes as I hiked through the Everfree forest. Hiking through the woods is one thing, but shuffling through the woods with soaked socks and shoes is something I’d only wish on my worst enemy. Thankfully that was the only grievance I had with my current situation, the way to the mountain in the distance was uneventful with few obstacles in my way. It was a refreshing change from the tangled mess of branches and bushes that I was experiencing not too long ago.

I stopped to catch my breath as I was still winded from the ordeal of the waterfall. Leaning against a nearby birch tree, I rolled my shoulders and heard both of them sound with an audible pop. I was considerably out of shape for this kind of excursion in the outdoors, years of having a sedentary cubicle job being the blame for that. On the positive side, I did get to watch all those Youtube series on my breaks. Unfortunately, that meant they were also playing in my head while I tried to remember any lessons in wilderness survival I had also watched.

My mind may have been a steel trap when it came to things I’d seen, but that also made it a jumbled mess of everything which lead to some mix and matching at times. Like the smurfs were discussing the best way to dress a wound and clean and gut fish. And that was one of the tamer things rolling around in my skull. After a few minutes of rest against the less than comfortable birch tree, I decided to continue onward. That mountain wasn't going to get any closer by itself after all.

I stretched my legs one last time and began walking at a brisk pace to the mountain in the distance. The easiness of the path allowed my mind to wander. I had certainly been having a heck of a time finding my way out of this forest so far. I knew the Everfree was a dangerous place but they certainly downplayed it in the show. The show… I remembered what it was like back home when it was just a show. It was actually my sister’s fault that I got hooked on it, and she was obsessed with My Little Pony.

“You really are going to carry that thing for the rest of the day Sophie?” I asked my sister. She was holding a large plushie of Fluttershy in both of her arms that was almost as big as her.

“Of course I yam! I won her and I’m gonna’ carry her.” Sophie responded with an adorable authoritative voice. She was a short little girl at the age of 10, with brown hair and a bunch of freckles all over her face. Sophie was the kind of kid that when she set her mind to something she stuck by it until she was either successful or unconscious. It was a type of stubbornness that mom said we both got from dad, and was one of the few things we had in common. One of those other things had been My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

One day I was babysitting her while mom was out and Sophie was watching cartoons. The internet had decided that day to be utterly boring so I was left with little for electronic entertainment. I sat down with her in the hopes that I could pull the ole “These cartoons are horrible, why back in my day-” shtick. Fortunately I was instead greeted by technicolor ponies and their humorous antics. After I watched one episode my curiosity was peaked. Soon after I was a pretty big fan and sharing some of the stuff I found on the net with my sister. (Censoring some of the stuff, because let’s face it the internet is full of weird things) We would laugh and be amazed at all the awesome work fans around the net were doing with just a simple show about ponies.

Today we were at the state fair and one of the game booths had MLP character plushies as prizes. Unfortunately it was one of those ring toss games that you’d have to have luck that bordered on breaking the fabric of reality in order to win. My mom had a strict two chance policy of games, lest we waste too much money on a fruitless endeavor. I tried my hand at it but every ring I tossed bounced off of the bottles. When Sophie’s turn came she took one ring and threw it as hard as she could. The ring hit the bottle and spun wildly into the air! It bounced off the ceiling and landed perfectly right onto the grand prize bottle.

I was stunned. The game host was stunned. My mom was stunned. And Sophie was jumping up and down cheering “YES!” over and over. The host gave a huge smile and claimed my sister to be “one lucky lady” and that she had a pick of ANY plushy in the tent. She pointed swiftly at the large Fluttershy plush and jumped for joy when it was in her arms. I swear my sister probably broke the world record for the largest grin on a kid right then.

I looked at her now, cheeks puffed out to show how tough she was carrying around her prize. I chuckled, as I felt sorry for mom who was going to have to deal with her in her teenage years. She was going to be one heck of a fireball then.

“You know I would have picked Twilight Sparkle instead, as she is best pony without a doubt.” I said to Sophie.

“Of course you woulda’ picked her. You’re a dork!” She retorted with a smirk. I blushed and shot a look at her.

“I am most certainly not a dork!” I shot back with a pout.

“You are dork! And Twilight is a dork too, which is why you love her so much.” Sophie said making kissy faces at me. My mom laughed at the display of the two of us.

“She’s got you pegged Felix, you are a total dork.” Mom said shaking her head at the two of us. I looked back at mom with despair. Curse those women for ganging up on me, I was drowning is a sea of estrogen and I couldn’t swim!

“Well for you information ladies I am a ‘geek’, we are much more dignified.” I explained pushing up my nonexistent glasses for effect.

“Whatever you say… dork.” Sophie shot in. Mom began laughing again at how I was losing an argument to a 10 year-old. I began to snicker and soon I joined in on the laugher. Sophie just rolled her eyes at the two of us, which caused us to laugh harder.

Since I was introduced to them, ponies became a part of my life. Every day when I got home, I would check the latest news and fan fics to see what entertainment I could find. It was one thing I was exceptionally glad my sister introduced me to, and it was a community that was always changing and improving.

I sighed as I returned from my remembrances. That was almost 4 years ago, hard to believe I remembered it so well. I guess a wandering mind brings back nostalgia. I had gotten much closer to the mountain and the sun was just starting to turn the sky a brilliant orange with it setting. I’d only have a few hours of light left so I picked up the pace. Thankfully there was a large clearing ahead and it would make getting to the foot of the mountain tremendously easy. Things were starting to look up.

Fluttershy was out in her garden tending to some rather unscrupulous weeds that had decided to stay firmly rooted to the ground. With one last tug she pulled with all her might as her wings beat to give her extra power. The weed gave way and Fluttershy flew backwards and fell flat on her rump with a thud. She shook her head clearing the dizziness from it and smiled with triumph over the invasive foliage. Walking over to a pail full of the other weeds she had pulled, Fluttershy plopped the last one in and picked up the bucket carrying it out to her garbage can.

Fluttershy walked down the path from her house and to the road where the lone garbage can sat. As she walked up to it she saw another pony walking towards her. Fluttershy set the bucket down and greeted her visitor with a soft smile.

“Oh, hello Twilight.” said Fluttershy in her usual soft tone. “What brings you out this way so late? …if you don’t mind me asking that is…” Fluttershy hid behind her bangs as she said her last sentence, being ever so true to her name. Twilight smiled and rolled her eyes at her friend’s ever so demure behavior.

“I’m actually heading out to Zecora’s. She lent me these books on rare herbology recipes and I promised to return them to her today.” Twilight said motioning to the large amount of books that were stuffed into her saddlebags.

“Oh, you shouldn’t go in this late, what if you get lost? And there’s that… other thing…” Fluttershy said trailing off near the end.

“Oh you don’t have to worry, I’ve budgeted my time and I can make it there and back and still have 10 minutes of daylight remaining.” Twilight reassured her friend with a chipper tone. “But what do you mean ‘other thing’?” Fluttershy blushed at Twilight’s question.

“W-Well, it just that the… timberwolves are kind of in the middle of their… mating season.” Fluttershy couldn’t possibly hide any further behind her hair in embarrassment then she already was. “They are very VERY protective of their territory right now, and I wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“Don’t worry Fluttershy,” Twilight reassured her friend “I’ll be sticking to the path, so I won’t have any problem with those wolves at all.”

“Oh, well you should be alright if you stick to the path. Just be sure to avoid any clearings, they usually prowl around there.” Fluttershy explained. “I would feel terribly sorry for anypony who happened to wander through and encounter a pack of timberwolves.”

“Well I certainly wouldn’t do something as silly as that.” Twilight said with a small giggle. “You’d have to be really dumb to walk into an open field in a forest full of monsters.”

“FAAAAAAK MY LIFE!” I screamed as I broke through the treeline of the clearing I just passed through. Behind me howls and yips of wolves could be heard as they chased after their prey. And I just so happened to be the special of the day. I sprinted through the trees towards the mountain which was much closer than it was before. The wolves meanwhile, having the advantage of 4 limbs, were closing in on me quickly as their howls got louder and closer.

Darting through the foliage it soon became less dense than before and up ahead I could see why. I stopped right at the edge of a ravine that split the forest right in two. Looking over the edge I could see it would be quite a fall down, maybe even larger than the one that was near the ruins I was at not too long ago. What was with this place and giant holes in the ground? Again the ravine was far too large for me to jump, but with those wolves on my tail I wouldn’t have much of a choice unless I found another way across. Thankfully fate decided to cut me a break and I spotted a downed tree lying sprawled across the ravine.

I ran over to the tree and gave it a quick once over. It looked like it could support my weight, but it also had been lying there for quite a while. It could have been rotten through all the way for all I knew, and it would send me plummeting to my doom the instant I set foot on it. This was not a time for me to be picky as one of the wolves burst through the tree line behind me. I panicked and scrambled over the log to the other side while the log creaked and groaned with every step.

Jumping off the log I safely landed on the other side with a thud. I turned around to see that the wolves were nearing the log and would soon make me their dinner unless I did something about it. Quickly I wrapped my arms around the logs and began to lift it up. For being old and rotten it was really damn heavy. Straining my legs I put every ounce of what I could muster into lifting that log. It’s amazing what the fear of being food for wild animals will do for ya’. Just as the wolves were about to reach the log, my persistence paid off and the log freed itself from the ground on my side. I shifted to the left taking the end of the log with me and threw it only a few inches, but that was all that was needed.

The log now moved from its stable position began to roll on my end, right towards the edge of the ravine. One of the wolves thought he could make it across and jumped on the log and bolted across it right towards me. But his haste was his undoing, as the log’s edge rolled right over the ravine and sent both the log and the timberwolf tumbling down into the depths below.

“HA! Gotcha, ya stupid wolf!” I shouted in triumph as I looked across the ravine to the wolves on the opposite side. They watched their pack mate fall to his doom, then turned their attention on me and snarled. “Oh are the big bad wolfies mad at me?” I teased the timberwolves. “What chu’ gonna’ do about it? I’m right here. And you’re way over therrrrreeee.” With that last line I made silly faces at them and enjoyed my small victory. It was nice for once to be on the winning side in this man vs. nature war I seemed to be a part of. For once since coming here things were going my- why are the wolves backing up?

I was brought out of my egotistical stupor when I noticed the wolves were backing away from the ravine. Not like they were walking away, it was like they were backing up to have more distance so they could… Oh fak me sideways. I didn’t stick around to see what they were doing; I decided getting as much distance between me and these wolves was the best idea at this point.
The forest on this side of the ravine was much more densely packed then on the other side, branches whipped and scratched me as I ran past tearing new holes into my already torn up apparel. I heard the wolves howling behind me again beginning the chase anew. My hope for putting enough distance between me and them was dashed when I suddenly found myself up against a wall. I had reached the base of the mountain much quicker than I thought I would, and unfortunately it was a straight shot up about 10 feet. As soon as I turned around to run in a different direction, the wolves appeared and cut off all means of escape. I was hopelessly trapped.

“Now, you know I was just kidding about the whole, ‘big bad wolfie’ thing, right?” I said hoping that I could appease the wolves. Their response was a loud bark and one nasty growl. They weren’t in a very forgiving mood. The wolves began to close in slowly, one of them even licked its lips. “Now come on, you wouldn’t want to eat me! I’ve been living off a diet of pizza and lean cuisine. I probably taste like freezer burn.” I said panicking. Oh sure I could have said something less stupid, but let’s see you trying to be witty when you are about to be the main dish for a party of 6!

My back pressed up against the stone wall as the pack closed in, sweat pouring down my neck. I never guessed that this would be my end, eaten by wolves… made of wood. Fate is REALLY funny that way. Suddenly before they could turn me into Felix-fondue, a loud roar blasted through the air right above me. I looked up to see a figure that looked awfully familiar. The figure jumped in the air and landed with a large thump right in front of me. The timberwolves looked just as surprised as I did at who joined us, it was a manticore. And if I had to hazard a guess it was the same one who chased me over that waterfall!

The Manticore leapt into the pack of timberwolves with unmatched ferocity and sank its teeth into one of them while swiping another with its massive paws. The other wolves leapt to help their comrades, and a flurry of fur and wood flew through the air in a brawl for the ages. I was amazed at what I was watching; it was like if National Geographic teamed up with the Sci Fi channel to deliver a mythical version of Deadliest Warrior. The manticore ripped through the timberwolves like… well like timber. One of the wolves got behind the manticore and bit hard into one of its legs. Unfortunately for the wolf, the manticore used its large tail to send the wolf flying into a tree with a sickening crack.

The wolf that was knocked into the tree slowly got up, and looked as though it were in a lot of pain and stumbled over its own feet. The wolf let out a few barks and the other timberwolves immediately broke away from the fight. The manticore lashed out one last time at the wolves and they scattered into the woods. I was amazed, here this lone monster came to my rescue and saved me from being eaten alive. Hurray, the manticore saved me! It turned round and looked right at me. Those eyes stared right through me and seemed to glow in the evening light. Then it … licked… its lips. Oh crap, the manticore is going to EAT ME!

The manticore wasted no time and charged. It did a flying leap through the air and sailed right at me. My reflexes kicking in I dived to the ground and the manticore’s claws grazed me as it flew right over me and slammed headfirst into the wall. It may be an unstoppable killing machine, but that apparently doesn’t mean it’s the sharpest knife in the drawer.

Rocks fell down from the mountain; they must have been jostled from the force of the manticore hitting the mountainside. One of them landed right next to me and I grabbed it. It was short only about a foot in length but what was good was that it was extremely sharp at one point. I could easily use this as an improvised weapon!

The manticore began to stir and recover from its self inflicted daze and I took this as a cue to run for it. I scrambled to my feet and ran back into the woods. I had to think quickly though, all this running had still made me winded. There was no way I could outrun this manticore so I would have to find a way to get rid of it. I obviously couldn’t kill it with this makeshift knife, so how could I get this manticore off my tail? Then the answer revealed itself to me as I made my way through the woods, the ravine was straight ahead.

I stood as close to the ravine as I safely could, I wasn’t planning on being the fall guy this time. In the distance I heard the manticore roaring and heading right to me. I braced myself and dug my feet in, knowing I’d only have one shot at this and I didn’t think I could pull it off even then. I took one last deep breath and the manticore burst through the trees sending leaves and branches flying outward.

The beast narrowed its gaze right at me and snorted. Our eyes met and I could feel the intensity of the beast radiating from those golden orbs. We stared each other down for what felt like a year not moving even an inch. Then the manticore leapt forward running full tilt at me. The sudden change shocked me and I felt a surge of adrenaline flow through my body.

Time seemed to slow down as the manticore approached giving me time to shift my weight to the right. The manticore slowly moved correcting his run to meet my dodge, but I wasn’t trying to dodge him entirely this time. My left arm with the makeshift knife in hand swung low and aimed for the front joint of the manticore’s arm as it ran at me. The manticore tried to swipe me with its right paw but I was able to slam my knife into its joint right as it sliced me with its massive claws and sent me hurtling to the ground. The manticore stumbled from the injury to its large front leg and tried to correct itself, but unfortunately for the beast it had too much forward inertia. The Beast buckled on its injured front leg and skidded to one side, then flipped over its own body and was sent right over the edge of the ravine roaring in pain.

I laid on the ground panting heavily as the adrenaline left my system. I stumbled to my feet and in a daze walked over to the ravine where the beast fell. I could still hear its roar as it fell, the reverberations off the walls of the ravine were chilling, but I stood triumphant over the manticore’s doom.

“HA. Hope you enjoy the long time to wave goodbye you overgrown housecat!” I shouted down at the manticore that was now out of sight in the blackness of the ravine’s bottom. I stumbled back laughing at what I had just done, it wasn’t often that an out of shape dork gets to outsmart a killer mythological beast. Then pain shot through my chest from my laughter and I groaned in pain. My hand felt… damp and I looked at the palm. It was covered in… blood, my blood.

I looked down to see a large gash that had been sliced into my chest. That manticore got me really good before he fell and I was losing blood. I took off my shirt to see just how big the cut was, and thankfully it wasn’t as deep as I originally thought, but ohhhhhhhh God was that a lot of blood. The cut was about 7 inches across my chest and it didn’t look like it went deep enough to hit anything important. The bleeding was nauseating, I never had to look to that much of my own blood before.

I took my shirt and wrapped it around the wound and tied a knot with the arms behind me tightly. Hopefully that would keep the pressure on the wound while It heals. If I could find a stream I could wash off the blood later. I took a few minutes to catch my breath from the recent tussle and then decided to head back to the mountain side.

Walking back through the woods I had to put my hand to my wound every time I stretched in a way that my body disagreed with. I reached the other side of the small woods and searched for a way up the mountain. I walked along the side of the mountain having to climb over a few boulders and rocks that had fallen. After a good 20 minutes of walking I found an incline that was climbable and began to slowly trudge up it.

By now daylight was in its last moments and soon the night sky would take over the skyline. I had to find some place to lie down that I’d be out of the general sight of anything passing by. Not too far up the mountain I spotted a small alcove that I could use. It was mostly hidden by boulders that had a blocked entrance into it, but thankfully there was a large enough hole for me to squeeze into.

I turned around and looked out into the skyline. Even though I hadn’t gone up the mountain very far I got a lovely view of the twilight sky as it gleamed off the treetops. If I wasn’t in pain from the cut on my chest it would almost be a great sight to enjoy. I slid to my feet against the alcove wall and sighed. I had walked quite a distance and had run for my life on more than one occasion today. I was thoroughly exhausted.

I took one last look out at the view then closed my eyes. I could do with some rest, tomorrow I would find my destination and would be heading towards civilization. It was going to be quite a trip and I would need all the energy I could muster. Thankfully sleep came easily and I drifted off into the blackness of my subconsciousness.

“Soon, Sophie…”

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revamp Notes:

Felix changed a LOT as I went over and over the rough of this whole story. Originally he was a LOT more like an author avatar, even when I had been trying to AVOID doing that. Eventually, I was able to hammer out his personality a lot more. He's an impulsive, semi competent, and down right lucky son of a bitch. He's the kind of guy who would act on the first idea that came to him to solve a problem. A great guy who could make snap decisions... just don't expect them all to be good.

Ch. 4 Truth

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Edited by AuthorGenesis and Anonymous

Chapter 4 - Truth

My dreams that night were a jumbled mess of confusing images. It felt like I was sitting in that Willy Wonka psychedelic paddle boat ride. except all the things I was seeing were instead parts of my life floating by like clouds. Trippy, multicolored, and distorted clouds. Moments in time flashed before me, the bike I got for my birthday, my first kiss, my first slap from kissing too long, graduating from High School, watching My Little Pony with Sophie, leaving my parents’ house, moving to the city, and then the train.

As I saw the last image flash everything went still with only the faint sound of the train whistle fading in the distance. I sat… or stood, I couldn’t quite tell, waiting for something to happen. I looked around and saw nothing but inky blackness and then right when I turned around I came face to face with someone I didn’t expect... my sister.

“You’re selfish you know that?” she said with no expression on her face. I was confused, how did Sophie get here? But more importantly-

“WHAT?” I asked completely dumbfounded.

“You’re selfish. You have only been thinking about yourself for a long time and you won’t admit it!” She crossed her arms but kept that creepy blank face stare at me.

“…No seriously, WHAT?” I was unable to process this. I hadn’t seen my sister in ages, and here she was not a day older than when I last saw her… Not a day older. My brow furrowed, I wasn’t up for any tricks especially when they involve my family being used. “Alright Death! I know that’s you, so drop the act!” ‘Sophie’ just stood there and looked right at me. She didn’t let up from her gaze and it started to unnerve me.

“You are a selfish jerk. And you know it.” she said. Her gaze seemed to intensify the longer I stared back. I stumbled back for a second, my mind was telling me to run, and that staying was a bad idea. But I instead felt more anger for what I was witnessing.

“Screw you Death! Stop using my sister’s image like that you fucking coward!” I shouted with rage in my voice. My desire to flee was suppressed by my desire to kick whatever-this-thing-was’ ass.

“You always ran away from your problems, and when things got worse you refused to even acknowledge it.” Sophie’s voice increased in volume with each word she spoke. Her figure grew ever larger, and darker. “You ran from your responsibility, you ran away from mom, you ran away FROM ME!” Her voice boomed with those last few words like a thunder clap had sounded right in front of me. My legs buckled and I began to shake, fear was taking hold of my mind and I couldn’t process why I was so terrified. This was my little sister in front of my eyes, why was she so menacing looking? Why was she doing this? My mind snapped to attention as I reminded myself of who I was dealing with.

“SHUT UP DEATH! You don’t know anything about me! Leave my sister out of this!” I shouted in defiance. I wasn’t going to let Death try and use the image of my sister to weaken me anymore. I sprung onto my feet and charged at the doppelganger, throwing back one of my fists as a windup for a large right hook. I shifted my body and swung with all my might aiming right for ‘her’ head, but my hand stopped inches from her face. I tried to push my fist closer, but it felt as though something was holding me in place. And then I saw something was holding me in place.

Black tendrils of wispy smoke were wrapped around my hand. They were ice cold to the touch and it felt like my hand was burning. Panicking, I tried to pull away, but my hand wouldn’t budge an inch. I screamed in fear while I swung with my free hand at her face only to have that hand be immobilized as well. I frantically tried to pull away, grunting and hollering but no amount of force I applied changed anything, including her stare. My eyes fell upon hers, and fear shot through me. The eyes, her eyes, they were blacker than the darkest hole, and deeper than a pit to hell itself. She slowly moved closer to my face, her eyes unblinking, unmoving, unforgiving. When I could feel the very breath from her upon my face she spoke with a voice that made my soul scream in fear.

“I… AM NOT DEATH.” She spoke, every word shattering my already broken mind. “I AM WHAT YOU DESPISE, WHAT YOU REGRET, AND WHAT YOU DENY.” Her eyes suddenly erupted in color, golden amber swirled in the blackness of her eyes and then became the purest bight color of gold I had ever seen.

“W-what the hell are you?” was all I could stammer out.

“WHAT. YOU. FEAR.”

Her eyes burst into beams of light, blinding me. I screamed out loud in panic, as the sound of destruction erupted around me. I felt my body being tossed and thrown around, being beaten relentlessly. Pain flooded my senses as I screamed, wishing the noise and anguish would go away. Then I was thrown to the ground and my breath left me. I couldn’t breathe, I couldn’t scream, and the droning sound of a single loud tone echoed in my mind. The light, it still burned into my mind, I moved one of my hands to block the beam from my eyes, and I felt warmth.

Warmth, and glowing heat on my hand.

My senses returned quickly as I felt the warm glow of the sun upon my hand. My eyes fluttered open to see blurry shapes all around me. I rubbed the sleep from my eyes and yawned while stretching my back. The warm feeling was all over my face and I looked up to see why. The rock wall that was my makeshift wall to the outside had a small hole in it, just large enough for a single ray of light to shine through and onto my face. I smiled, couldn’t have asked for a better way to wake up.

Blocking out the sunlight I moved my legs to stand up, but I found it hard to do so as my legs had decided to remain asleep. Using the wall as support I shuffled to my feet and stood still letting the blood flow back into my legs. My head was pounding from a headache in the front of my skull. It felt like someone had hit me with a sledgehammer as a good morning wake up call.

I stood there leaning up against the wall rubbing my temples slowly working the stress out of my system. I lifted my arms over my head and stretched the last remaining tensions out of my back, only for me to snap back as pain shot across my chest.

I clutched my torso in my arms as the pain slowly faded away. I had forgotten about the wound I had gotten yesterday in my fight with the manticore… I laughed, which also caused me to cringe, to think I fought a mythical creature yesterday. I could have shrugged the whole memory off as a vivid dream if it weren’t for the bloody shirt wrapped around my chest. I lifted up my impromptu bandage to inspect my wound. The bleeding had stopped and a thin layer of shiny pink skin had formed over my cut in my chest. I gave it a poke and pulled back when it stung like hell. Although I was no longer bleeding, my body hadn’t formed a scab yet to protect my now squishy sensitive wound.

I moved my shirt back to covering my wound, it would just have to do as a makeshift band aid for a little bit longer. I slowly moved out from the alcove, squeezing between the rocks that provided me with a wall o the outside. I was greeted with the morning sun shining in all its radiant glory over the treetops. The morning dew still adorned the trees and made them shimmer like glass against the beaming sun. The sight was very picturesque, it was one of those things you could only experience in nature, a beautiful sight to behold. The mood however was ruined by my stomach growling loudly.

I realized just how long I had been without food and decided that breakfast was the first order of business today. I slowly descended the mountain side, trying to avoid any loose rocks lest I slip and crack my skull wide open falling down the mountain side. Back on the forest floor I began to search around nearby for any bushes containing berries or anything of the like. I got down low and began to walk low to the ground searching for any fruit bearing bushes.

Most of my searches came up either empty or filled with thorns. I pricked my hands quite a bit and was starting to get annoyed with the fruitless search. I snickered at my own bad pun, and then regretted it when the pain came back in my chest. Maybe I should tone down on the jokes until I can at least laugh without causing myself burning pain. Thankfully I was eventually able to find a lone bush that had some raspberries hidden between a grouping of trees.

Most of the larger berries had been picked off by the other inhabitants of the forest, luckily there were many handfuls worth of smaller berries still attached to the vines. They tasted quite sour for raspberries, but I wasn’t complaining, it was better than nothing after all. The fruit in hand I walked back to the mountainside eating my bountiful berry breakfast. I devoured the last one as I reached the base of the mountain, then I slowly began my ascent.

The mountain was much easier to climb than it had been last night for me. The sunlight made it much easier to find paths and slopes on my way up. I walked slowly trying to not overexert myself, I didn’t want to have to do any major climbing which could open my wounds. Fortunately I didn’t have to do anything strenuous, there was a small but usable pathway that wound its way up the mountain. I kept a steady pace as I hiked, looking out into the woods every now and then to see if I spotted any form of civilization. The view was magnificent, I had never be up so high in comparison to the rest of the land around me. Having lived in a city for most of my life I was not used to major geological changes in elevation, which made every sight I saw all the more fascinating.

I looked out and saw the forest sprawl out in all directions. In the distance I saw the waterfall that I had fallen off of, the mist from the falls flowed into the air creating a fog all around it. I also saw many other wonderful sights, such as a lone pine tree about the size of the Chrysler building jutted out of the forest, there was a small swamp filled with dead trees, and there was another mountain in the distance.

That’s when I saw it. I didn’t even have to squint to see it, but there it was on that mountain in the distance. It was a castle, hanging off the side of the mountain, shining in the morning sun like a beacon. The capital of Equestria that I had seen so many times in animated form now glimmered in the distance in real life, Canterlot.

I chuckled softly only feeling a slight twinge on my wound from my reaction. I always did find the horse puns of the show to be quite humorous, guess I was just a “punny” sort of guy. I also saw just a few buildings right near the edge of the forest between me and Canterlot. That was my goal, Ponyville, home to the characters of the cartoon and the setting for MLP: FIM.

My hands quivered with anticipation, with the thought that I finally had my goal in sight. For a while I had been wandering blindly through these woods, having to run like mad just to survive. Now I had direction, I had drive, and I had to go through even more forest filled with deadly creatures to get there.

Slowly I descended the mountain, keeping the castle in my sight as long as possible. Climbing down on this side was actually refreshingly easy, I rarely had to detour to find a less steep path. As I got closer to the bottom the castle eventually was blocked from my sight by the woods. Making a mental note of the mountain behind me, I thought as long as I had it to my back I would be heading in the right direction.

Walking in a straight line was a lot harder than I first thought however. The way to Ponyville was interrupted by numerous cutoffs, small cliffs and downed trees blocking the way. On the positive side I could still see the mountain behind me, so I wasn’t completely lost. This part of the forest was much more populated with creatures, most of them small. There were lots of birdcalls in the air, and the sounds of chipmunks chattering could be heard as they chased one another between the trees. Soon the background noise of the forest faded as I began to think of what I would do next. There were so many variables to actually meeting the denizens of Equestria, and there were hundreds of outcomes that could happen.

I could meet them and they would accept me openly, after all the ponies seemed to be a lot more used to strange things than humans would be. Or they could be utterly horrified by me. And then they would panic and hide from me. Then they would form angry mobs with torches and pitchforks and chase me down. I would be thrown in a cell or worse, put on public display in a local zoo like I’m some sort of strange animal. Or worse they could take me to some secret underground vault, and have me dissected alive with my arms and legs strapped to a table! They could even be planning to force feed me cake to fatten me up because they are all secretly MEAT EATERS! Of course most of those ideas were incredibly silly and not possible in the least... I hoped.

My mind continued to wander as I walked through the forest, drifting in and out of daydreaming as I continued along my way. Then I noticed something was off. The sounds of the wildlife had completely vanished giving the forest an eerily quiet atmosphere. I stopped looking around and listening carefully, there would be a reason why the other animals had fled and I had a bad feeling that I knew exactly what it was. Slowly I moved forward listening intently for any disturbances.

Ssssshhhhhthump.

I jerked to a stop, behind me I heard the sound of movement from some bushes. Slowly I turned my head around to look, making sure I wouldn’t make any sudden movements. The bush that had made the sound stood still, and no sound came from it. I stare at that bush intently, waiting for something to jump out and strike me. Then I saw something in a hole in the bush. It was an eye, a big golden eye looking right at me.

I AM WHAT YOU DESPISE.

The words echoed in my head, and I bolted away as fast as I could. A roar erupted behind me and I heard foliage being crushed. I looked behind me as I ran to confirm my suspicions, a manticore, THE manticore who had been chasing me ever since I got here was right behind me. It was a dead giveaway from how roughed up it looked, and the blood stained paw was a dead giveaway. Good lord was this bastard a hardy sucker, that ravine must have been more than 300 feet deep and yet he still survived. The manticore then leapt into the air and spread its…wings. Damn I forgot he even had those!

The beast flying above the trees roared as he dive-bombed me. I juked to the left just in the nick of time as it came crashing down right where I stood. I stumbled for a second and barely avoided the paw that lashed out at me. I sprinted away and the beast continued to chase me. The trees began to increase in number slowing down the large animal, until it began to charge straight through them like they were twigs.

I was in a major bind. Even though I was closer to Ponyville than before, I was still too far away to make it while outrunning this monster. I looked around madly, hoping to find some sort of way to either buy me some time or use as an improvised weapon. I still had my stone dagger but I doubt the beast would be stupid enough to fall for the same trick twice. My footing was lost suddenly when I stumbled over an exposed root and slammed into a tree. My vision blurred for a second and then shot into focus when I looked behind me to see the manticore rear up on two legs preparing to strike me down.

Panic shot through my entire system, I was about to die! There would be no way I could dodge this strike and I don’t think it was going to miss. I had no plan, no idea, and no hope of escaping. I looked down not wanting to see my death coming, when I saw a large branch sticking out of the ground. The branch was the size of my forearm and resting on a rock right in front of the manticore with the other side stuck in the ground. As the claws came down to slice me, I slammed my foot on the branch with my entire bodyweight behind it. The branch erupted from the ground and shot up right between the manticore’s legs.

There was a sickening crack that sounded through the Everfree forest.

Followed by a sickening roar that caused every male in earshot to cringe.

The beast doubled over in pain, its front paws groping its crotch in pain. Whimpers and grunts of pain was all it could muster over its impromptu neutering via branch. I stood over the quivering body of the manticore triumphant, and disbelieving that I just nutshot a freaking manticore!

“Ha! How do you like that!? You mess with the bull you get the ho-” I was interrupted from my smack talk by the beast roaring in pain again. I decided to save the taunting for another day and left before the manticore could regain his senses. Breaking into a jog I hurried my way towards Ponyville, the more distance I could put between me and this beast would be all for the better.

“You always ran away from your problems…”

I jolted to a stop, as I heard that voice again, and it was repeating things from my dream. My head darted around to find the source of the voice, but none could be found.

“Show yourself damnit!” I screamed at voice “I’m sick of these hide and go seek games.” I stood there breathing heavily, my entire psyche was on edge. I stood there waiting for a response. A heavy roar in the distance decided to be that response and I took off running again. The trees flew by me as my feet stomped into the ground. My foot slipped on a branch and I had to grab onto a tree to stop myself from falling, and it was a good thing I did.

The forest in front of me slanted downwards at a decline. A particularly steep one, slanted enough that if you fell down you’d have a hard time stopping even with all the rocks and trees in your way. I backed away from the tree I decided to hug to see that it was now splattered with blood, my blood. I swore as I lifted my shirt to view the now bleeding again wound. I retightened the shirt and moved it so a less bloody part was covering it. This was bad, I was bleeding again, my blood and thus my scent was scattered all over this tree like a giant billboard saying “OVER HERE!” and the manticore was right behind me. If I tried descending this slant, the beast would probably catch up to me before I even hit bottom. I had to outsmart it again, but how could I if it knew exactly where I was. Then I got an idea, it knew where I was, but I bet it wouldn’t expect a surprise attack.

I quickly climbed one of the trees nearby the one splattered with my blood. I climbed to the highest branch I could and hid among the leaves, hopefully I blended enough in that it wouldn’t notice me up here. I stood holding on to the trunk of the tree waiting and watching. Soon I heard a large animal approaching as it crashed through the underbrush. The manticore ran out into my sight and stopped short of the bloodstained tree. I took the stone dagger out of my pocket and readied it in my hand. The manticore sniffed the tree and began to look around. ‘Yes yes kitty, where could I have gone?’ I said to myself. Then, stepping off the branch I let gravity take a hold of me.

The branches whistled past me as my body slammed the back of the manticore, causing the bastard to rear up again in shock. I gripped onto its mane with my free hand and gripped its sides with my legs. The manticore began to thrash back and forth in an attempt to throw me off, but this was hardly a bull and it was not used to throwing attackers off its back. I brought the stone dagger high into the air and brought it down right into the manticore’s right eye. The beast roared in pain and tried to buck me off, sending my legs flying free but my grip on his mane remained. Giving the dagger a twist I pulled back and the manticore sprayed the ground with the blood and fluids that shot out of its eye socket.

“Lights out you son of a bitch!” I jabbed the dagger into the manticore’s left eye and it let out a blood curdling roar of pain and agony. I laughed maniacally as I twisted the dagger in its socket. If I could just reach its brain I could kill it and be done with it once and for all! I pulled the dagger out of its eye and prepared for one last stab, and then I stopped. I hadn’t felt it at first but a great wave of pain erupted from my right shoulder causing me to drop my dagger. I looked back to see the scorpion tail of the manticore embedded into my backside. The tail pulled out of me, and more pain shot through me. I screamed in anguish and reared up one of my legs and kicked the base of the tail. The tail tried to strike again and instead because of my kick, hit the side of its owner’s head.

The manticore reared up again and threw me through the air, I collided with a tree and flopped to the ground like a ragdoll. The beast kept on bucking not realizing I was off and kept roaring and spinning around to throw off its ghost attacker. The manticore however, didn’t see how close it was to the edge of the decline and went tumbling over the edge roaring as it fell. I could hear trees snap and heavy crashing noises as it fell further and further down the hill. Its roars faded into the distance and soon I could no longer hear it anymore.

I laid there breathing heavily, the force of being slammed against the tree had knocked the wind out of me. I tried to struggle to my knees, but pain shot through my entire back when I did. That stinger of his still left its mark in my back and a growing numbness started to spread out from the wound. I tried to fight it and rise to my feet, but my body refused to cooperate. Slowly the numbness extended to my neck and I found it hard to breathe. A figure suddenly appeared before me, but the numbness prevented me from turning my head up to see who it was. The figure bent down and stared at me with her glowing golden eyes.

“You’re selfish you know that?”

The words echoed in my head as the eyes burned into my skull and I passed out.

I sat in the backseat of the car as we traveled home from the fair. Mom was driving, even though I had my license and could totally drive just fine. She used that old mom excuse that she’d never be able to get any rest if “I” was driving. I decided to give her my best pouting face while sitting back here and I would remain grumpy all the way home.

“My teacher says, ‘If you keep making an angry face, it will stay stuck like that forever.’” said my sister sitting to my left. She had this know it all grin on her face as she hugged her Fluttershy plush.

“Yes, well your teacher also happens to be an alien, so she would know a lot about humans wouldn’t she?” I said back to her. Sophie's face turned to one of shock, her jaw nearly dropped to the floor.

“She is?!” asked Sophie as all kids do when they hear a big secret.

“Felix stop trying to convince your sister that aliens have taken over the school.” my mom interjected. I smiled devilishly at mom and turned back to Sophie and whispered to her.

“Of course mom doesn’t want you to know cause she’s an alien too.” Sophie’s eyes practically bugged out of her skull.

“Reaaaaally?” she whispered back to me.

“Yes I am dear, I also have great hearing.” Mom interjected again. Damn how does she do that?!

“Dang it mom, do you have to ruin EVERYTHING I do?”

“Oh come now Felix, I’m not that much of a stick in the mud am I? After all who paid for your ticket to the fair I wonder?” mom said with a tinge of smugness.

“Y… you did.” I said defeated. “You may have won this battle today, but not the war!”

“Oh there was even a battle at all? I could have sworn I was talking to France in my backseat.” Ooooooooo, she got me right in the pride. Mom looked back at me through the rearview mirror and smiled, I couldn’t help laugh a little at that. She may be a mom but dang does she know how to talk smack. Never use a ‘Yo momma’ joke around her, I did once and I still have nightmares from her interesting form of revenge.

I looked over to Sophie who was whispering something to her plushie. She then put her ear up to Fluttershy’s mouth and nodded her head. “What did Fluttershy say to you Sophie?” I asked her.

“She said she wants a real pony to hang out with. Another Pegasus!” Sophie said with stars in her eyes.

“I’m sorry sweetie, but we can’t get a Pegasus as a pet.” said mom “We live in the city and there’d be no place for it to stay.” I knew she’d also have a dickens of a time trying to find a mythical winged horse to begin with. Mom however was also right, the duplex we lived in didn’t allow pets of any kind so we didn’t have a single family pet.

“She could stay in my room!” Sophie said trying to convince my mom. “And she wouldn’t take up any space at all, and I would take good care of her!”

“I’m sorry Sophie, I really wish I could, but you know we can’t.” Mom gave Sophie her most sincere voice, but it wasn’t that effective against Sophie’s pouting.

“I know…” Sophie sat there dejected and sullen. I reached over and rubbed the top of her head playfully.

“Tell ya’ what squirt, when I move out I’ll get a Pegasus as a pet and you can come over anytime. How does that sound?” I suggested to her. Sophie’s eyes lit up like a Christmas tree and smiled the biggest smile she could.

“You mean it!? I can come over and play games with her, and she can fly me around, and I can hug her whenever I want, and…” She spoke rapid-fire, asking about all the things she could do.

“Yes, yes!” I told her “Everything except the flying, I don’t think the ATCs would like you making an unscheduled take off.”

“The who?” she asked totally confused.

“The government.” I quickly explained.

“Harumph.” Sophie said pouting. “Stupid grover-mint, ruining all my fun… hey Felix when you do get that pony… could you…” She trailed off at the end.

“Could I do what?” I asked.

“Could you give her a hug for me and tell her that I’ll play with her soon? I know you’re gonna be busy with college school and stuff, but I want her to know that I’m gonna come by right away, okay?” Sophie asked. She looked so determined in her eyes.

“Sure thing sis.” I said with a smile. Sophie cheered and gave me a hug that was way too strong for a girl her age.

“Thanks so much, you’re not such a dork after all.” Sophie said with a giggle. Sure I wasn’t REALLY going to get her a pony, what I actually was planning was that when she came over to visit I’d have a big present waiting for her. One of those life size pony models that had just come out in toy stores, they could be programmed to walk and talk with some preprogrammed lines. The Fluttershy model was a hard one to get but luckily I had a buddy who stocks the shelves at Target.

“Speaking of College mister, did you fill out those student loan forms yet?” asked mom.

“Um… sorta?” I responded sheepishly.

“What do you mean ‘sorta’?” she asked this time more sternly.

“Well, I put my name on the forms?” I said shrugging. I had been rather lax in filling out the paperwork for college, I was still basking the the ‘Just graduated High School’ glow. Mom of course let out the classic I’m-not-mad-I’m-just-disappointed sighs.

“Felix, you can’t keep putting off your responsibilities like this. You have to understand you are a grown man now and-” I tuned the rest of mom’s speech out. It was one of those ‘you’ve got to grow up and be responsible’ parent speeches that seems to be a requirement to CONSTANTLY remind your children with. She had said this speech to me so many times I had it memorized to the point where I knew the exact timing to respond. Of course this time she had to change it up and asked a rhetorical question instead, and I answered it. She turned around and glared at me. “Felix are you even listen to me mist-”

Two beams of light, blinded me.

“MOM! LOOK OU-”

I screamed out loud in panic, a horn blared and the left side of the car erupted in a hail of glass and steel.

“MOMMY!”

The car flipped over and I felt my body being tossed and thrown against the ceiling and the walls of the car.

“OURFATHERWHOARTINHEAVENHALOWEDBETHYNA-!”

My head slammed against my window and pain flooded my senses as I screamed wishing it would go away. My eyes glanced out the window to see the image of a tree.

“HOLD ON!”

The car hit the tree with full force and stopped dead. I slammed against the side of the car, my breath leaving me causing me to gasp. I couldn’t breathe, I felt my world fading away. The drowning sound of the car horn blaring echoed in my mind.

Silence.

Blackness.

Nothing.

Sound.

Beeping.

Beeping machines.

I groaned.

“Doctor? Doctor Barret, he’s awake!”

Who?

I felt like my head was in a vice. I couldn’t see, my mouth tasted dry, and every part of my body ached.

“Mr. Jackson, can you hear me?”

Someone? Asking for a Jackson? Am I a Jackson?

“Felix, can you hear me?”

My eyes shot open, at first I couldn’t see anything only a bright whiteness.

“I… I can’t see?”

“Nurse, would you close the blinds please?” said a voice. A nurse? Am I sick? I heard the sound of metal rings on metal move and soon the brightness faded and I could see general shapes in front of me.

“Is that better Felix?” asked the voice.

“Better, but it’s still blurry.” I said with a raspy voice.

“You’ve been in an accident Mr. Jackson, you were pretty banged up when they brought you in here. Your vision is most likely a side effect of the concussion you sustained.” the figure to my side explained

“Accident?” I was in an accident? That would explain the nurse.

“Yes, you were hit by an oncoming semi. Your car had flipped over the guardrail and went down an embankment. When the car collided with a tree you received that concussion. You also had a few minor lacerations to your-” The memories suddenly flooded back into my brain. I remembered all of it. The heart monitor shot up in tempo has my heart rate increased.

“Mom and Sophie! Where are they?! Are they alright?” I tried sitting up but the nurse pushed me back gently saying I should be laying down. “Where is my mother and sister?!”

“You mother is currently in ICU. She suffered serious head trauma, 3 broken ribs and a shattered knee. She’s stable but they had to alleviate some pressure in her brain that was building up. She’s being taken care of and is under our constant supervision.” The voice explained. It didn’t answer my question though.

“What happened to Sophie?”

The voice didn’t respond.

“Where is my SISTER?!” I screamed at the voice.

“She went into ICU as well, the entire left side of her chest was crushed from the impact. She was in critical condition with multiple fractures and a broken pelvis. She went into cardiac arrest when they tried to relieve the internal bleeding in her lung.” The doctor stopped.

“What happened?” I asked.

“I’m…”

“WHAT HAPPENED?”

“They were unable to revive her…

I’m sorry Felix,

she’s dead.”

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revamp Notes:

*Hands you a box of tissues*

Yeah when this chapter came out the comments were filled with nothing but, 'OH GAWD THE FEELS" And that made me happy. As a writer, there is nothing I love more then to know my work was able to effect a person at an emotional level. That's something ALL artists strive for. A recognition that their work has gone beyond the medium and made a connection to the audience. Be it sadness, joy, or elation, Triggering an emotional response is when you know you've done something right.

Unless you screwed up so badly everyone hates it, then you're fucked.

Ch. 5 Growth

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Edited by AuthorGenesis and Anonymous

Chapter 5 - Growth

Burning. My eyes shot open in shock from the feeling of intense pain all around my body. My blood itself felt like it was boiling through my veins. I found myself, belly flat on the ground, my mouth felt dry and full of dirt. Lifting my head was arduous, as it felt like I was weighed down by a tree. I brought my arms close to my chest only to be greeted with another shot of agony scorching its way across my back. I succumbed to the pain and fell upon my forearms. Coughing soon followed and each expulsion was joined by a wave of searing aches. My face fell into the dirt again and I began to sob, my tears mixing with the dirt on my face and the ground.

I laid there for what felt like an eternity, miring in my own anguish and mud. The darkness was all that I felt, all that I smelled, tasted and heard. My head pulsed with the beat of my heart sending the burning sensation all throughout my skull. So I waited, waited for the pain to subside, and for my strength to return. I know not how long I lay there for; maybe it was a few minutes or a few hours. Time at that point was of little use or purpose to me, yet it continued to march on around me soaking in my own agony.

Slowly the world around me began to come back into my senses. I heard the rush of the wind in the trees, the warmth of the sun as it poked through the small patches in the canopy, and the taste of dirt in my mouth. I coughed again and tried to clear my tongue of the offending taste with as much saliva as my dry glands would produce. Pushing off with my right arm I shifted my weight and flopped onto my back.

I groaned as I hit the exact spot where I was stabbed… I was stabbed? Was it a robbery? No… The manticore, right, that’s what it was. The details of my continued encounters and fights with the manticore came back to me as I shifted my weight off of that shoulder. I tried breathing in as deeply as I could, my chest rising and falling with my hands on top of it. The burning in my lungs subsided with each breath, fresh air cooling the heat in my chest. I opened my eyes to the splendor of the forest, only to shut them as the world was spinning around me, and made my head hurt worse.

Groaning, I shifted my arms to my side and pushed myself up with my elbows into a sitting position. Even with my eyes closed I felt dizzy, my whole body slowly swaying to the slow rotation I felt the earth tug me towards. My hand pushed against the ground and I pushed myself back onto my legs and into a standing position only to have my nausea return with a vengeance. I stumbled backward, but thankfully I bumped into a tree which helped me steady myself. The headache that I was experiencing at that time was not unlike having a vice tightened across your lobes while someone takes a sledgehammer to your sense of balance.

The world tilted before me when I opened my eyes, trees and the ground slanted at such an angle it was a miracle they didn’t uproot themselves from the gravity. But as soon as it felt like the earth was leaning to one side, then it flelt like it slid to the other, nearly taking me down with it in its pursuit of gravitational disturbances. I seized a nearby branch to use as a makeshift cane and leaned on it hoping it would help me weather the shifting ground beneath me. The earth shifted a few more times before it settled and the only thing I could hear was the deathly silence of the forest itself.

Taking a large breath I stepped forth and slowly walked forward through the woods. The shuffling of my feet brushing up against the forest floor and the snapping of twigs were my musical accompaniment for my journey. I hadn’t moved far before something caught my eye, a piece of stone was wedged into a tree. I moved closer and examined that it was the same stone that I had used as a makeshift dagger, its tip stuck into the tree and blood from the manticore still covered most of it. I grabbed it with my free hand and gave it a tug, yet it refused to budge. Setting my stick on the ground I grabbed with both hands and tried to pull it out.

Pulling back with both hands slowly made the dagger leave from its cedar housing. Then suddenly it popped right out having me lose my balance and fall onto my back. The wind left my lungs and I began another coughing fit as my body ached from more abuse. The pain in my shoulder renewed itself and my coughing did nothing to alleviate the pain or even displace it. Each cough was like a bag of nails dancing around in my lungs. I hoped I didn’t have any internal bleeding, that would make things harder to… harder to… something. There was something I was supposed to be doing, yet I couldn’t remember what. Why didn’t I remember?

“Of course you wouldn’t remember. It was a stupid and selfish goal to begin with.”

I shifted my head around to see nothing. I was sure I had heard something; it was a voice, much like my sister’s, yet wrong... Was I hearing things now too? I shook my head slightly to clear my thoughts of such stupidity, only to be greeted with the second coming of my headache. I ignored it as I had to get moving; who knew how long I had been out and whether or not that manticore was still alive and coming after me. Slowly lifting myself to my feet I grabbed my stick and steadied myself. I looked to my side and saw the dislodged dagger now free from the confines of the tree. I reached down and took it, sliding it into my pocket again. Now that my only defense was with me again I felt safer, albeit not much, but better than nothing.

I looked around me taking in my surrounding one last time. I saw above the canopy only a faint tip of a mountain in the distance… a mountain, yes I was walking away from it and towards something. Something important, that I needed to get to. I decided that was as good a plan as anything at the moment and I set the mountain to my back and began to walk slowly away from it. My pace sounding like the walk of an old crippled man as I treaded through the wood.

Everything was unnaturally quiet. It was the kind of silence that you only heard on the darkest of nights in the desert. The only sound was the wind and my steps. Not the sound of a wolf nor a bird call could be heard. The forest felt dead, as if everything had left due to fear or need. No, the only thing I could hear was organ music… organ music? I knew it was impossible but yet... I could heard music from a pipe organ right then. The forest around me began to darken as an opening in the trees formed ahead of me. The trees parted and seemed to melt together into planks, and from those planks formed into wooden walls.

Stepping through the entrance I came to an entry hall, the organ music now much clearer than it was before. Before me stood a double door, it too made of solid wood and the music poured in from behind those doors. I stood there wondering how these doors were here, and then I wondered more importantly, why? Seeming to answer my curiosity, the doors themselves swung open inward revealing the inside of a large high ceiling room. There were many wooden benches all filled with people, each one of them sitting facing away from me and towards the back of the building. I moved into the room to get a closer look at what was going on.

Rows of benches lined both to the left and right of me were filled with people I think I knew. Every one of them wore black, the men, the women, and the children. There were so many children, easily being one for almost every adult. They seemed familiar to me, like long lost memories of someone you knew, their faces were smeared and unintelligible, and they all looked forward from where they sat. Not a single one turned its gaze to me as I moved slowly down the aisle… the aisle, yes, that’s what it was called, and this place must be… a church.

A church... I had not been in one for a very long time. I questioned why all these people were here, and why the organ was still playing that tune. That damn tune that seemed so familiar and caused my chest to tighten with its continuing existence. I looked to the far end of where everyone was looking and I saw the altar of this church. It was bare, except for a pair of candles which adorned its sides. It wasn’t till I was closer that I saw what everyone was looking at. There gathered amongst an entire gathering of flowers, flowers of every kind imaginable in full bloom, sat a coffin.

My heart quickened, my breathing grew short, and my hands gripped the stick in them tightly as they shook. No. Not here. Anywhere but here. I pleaded with myself. I don’t want to see this. I have to go, I have to-. And yet I moved closer to it, drawn in like a moth to a flame. My mind begged and pleaded with my body not to continue with its advances, but it refused to listen. The very need to see drove my vessel closer and closer until the open lid end was close enough to see inside. As it came into my vision I stopped right in front of it. There. There inside the coffin, was my Sophie.

I fell to my knees and grabbed the edge of the casket as tears fell from my eyes. Why, why was I seeing this again? Wasn’t once enough? I cried with my head against the wood of the casket. Sobs echoed through the church with the organ underscoring my cries. The cold, blurred faces of the other patrons stared forward, heedless to my sorrow being shown in front of them. I stayed there, weeping into the side of that coffin as the music stopped. The next sound I heard was different, the sound of someone walking up to the podium on the corner of the altar, but the steps sounded all wrong.

“Thank you everyone for being here today to pay tribute to Sophie Jackson, the loss of a daughter, a sister and a friend to many.” Spoke a female voice, a voice which too sounded so familiar to me. I looked up, wiped the water from my eyes to see not a priest but a white unicorn clad in priest vestments standing at the podium. “The love and support that friends and family have given her family in this difficult time.”

I didn’t know what to think. Standing before me was Rarity, giving my sister's eulogy. But that was impossible; My Dad did that at Sophie’s funeral. How was Rarity here? And furthermore, how was this even possible? I stood there on my knees, my mind completely aghast at what I was seeing.

“Sophie was a bright girl for her age.” Rarity continued. “She was dead set on her goals and had a quick wit from someone so young. Her smile was one so infectious that it always spread wherever she went. Nothing would ever dampen her spirits, except for the worthless excuse for a brother that she had.” My fists trembled first in shock, then fear, and then anger. “It was him that originally was asked to give this eulogy, but he refused out of reasoning that he couldn’t do it. That he was too weak to express how much his sister meant to him in front of a crowd of loved ones. In his own weakness, he decided to sit and stare from a distance rather than express his feelings. That he would rather hide himself from others lest he show weakness. How petty.”

I leapt from my knees and dove towards Rarity screaming in rage. “Shut up you son of a bitch!” But my cries echoed through the room as I passed through Rarity like a fog. I fell onto my gut and groaned in pain, followed by yet another horrible coughing fit. I turned around to see that she was still talking, facing the crowd, ignoring me as though I was not there. Stick still in hand from my fall I propped myself up. “Don’t you fucking ignore me!” I screamed as I swung the stick right through Rarity. I continued to yell as I swung back and forth hitting nothing each time.

I gasped for air and leaned on the stick so I wouldn’t fall. I was like a ghost to them, an invisible specter, witnessing my sister’s funeral all over again. I’d had enough of it, these memories were poison enough and I wanted out. As I hobbled down from the altar, a path opened up to the side of the church. From it I could see it leading back into the forest. I steeled myself and walked on through it as I heard only the last few sentences of Rarity’s speech.

“Even though his father insisted that HE should give it as Felix had lived with his sister more than his father had after the divorce, Felix refused… How SELFISH.”

The last word was different, as though spoken by two at the same time. I whipped my head around to find… nothing. Nothing but forest behind me. Not a doorway nor panels of wood forming walls. The whole thing must have been a hallucination, a vivid one, too vivid. Was the wild magic of the forest working against me? No, it was just my mind playing tricks on me, had to be.

The forest changed little in sound or design as I moved onward. Each step felt a little more labored than the last. I stopped every few minutes to catch my breath, and each time I swore I heard a twig snap or a bush rustle I stopped both in my steps and breathing, only to hear the silence of the forest instead. Nervousness gave way to paranoia, was I being followed? Was something waiting around the next tree ready to strike at me?

“Mr. Jackson we need to talk.”

A new voice sternly spoke to me, causing me to jump in shock and whirl around to greet… a blue pony in medical garb. As soon as I gazed upon them the whole forest melted away, trees giving way to walls of solid cream and of floor made of tile. The scent of alcohol and sterilization swept though my sinus overwhelming them. The form of a hospital hallway soon became clear, as if I had whipped my eyes free of dust it had materialized before me. Sounds of heart monitors beeping and of people shuffling back and forth through halls came to me soon after.

“Mr. Jackson, listen, I know things have been hard for you lately, but this is your mother’s health we are talking about here.” continued the blue Pegasus. No, it was Rainbow, Rainbow Dash. She was standing there dressed in a doctors garments staring at me with an expression of complete contempt. “She’s been in and out for the past few days, and we’ve done everything modern medicine can do at this point. You need to go in and talk to her.”

“Talk? About what? The weather?” The words left from my lips shocking myself. Those words, they were the exact words I had said to the doctor before. After the funeral, I came a few times to the hospital with the intention to visit my mom, yet each time I would stop short of her room.

“Mr. Jackson, be reasonable, you are her only remaining relative and right now she needs you.” Urged Rainbow to me.

“She needs me? What the hell can I do that you haven’t done already? She doesn’t need me.” The words spat from my mouth like venom. No, why was I saying such things? No, the question was why HAD I said such things? This was like the replaying of my memories from the exact moment I lived them. I didn’t want to relieve these either. I was hurting, and lashing out, no I had to stop it, had to stop these memories!

“When people are in this state of on and off lucidity, the best thing they need is an anchor to help them back to being conscious. Please Mr. Jackson, you’re the only one who can help.” Rainbow’s face had taken on a desperate tone, like she herself was pleading with me.

“I’m not the only one, where’s my dad? Why isn’t HE here?” I asked sarcastically. Of course my father wouldn’t show. After the funeral he took off immediately back to his home across the country. The words I said had stung me, I couldn’t be saying this. No it had to be fake, a false memory. I would never do such a thing! I screamed in my head that it was all wrong, but deep down, I knew, this was what happened, what I did.

“Then why did you even come here, Mr. Jackson?” Rainbow Dash questioned me with a twinge of anger in her voice. Then I felt myself being pulled back, away from Rainbow, and away from my mother’s room. I screamed at my body to run, to get to that room, to stand next to my mom and embrace her and tell her to wake up, to tell her that I miss her and want her to wake up. The room however grew more and more distant, and then I spoke.

“I don’t even know.” I said, with nothing but apathy.

“...Some devoted son you are.”

My mind snapped as I wailed against whatever forces were showing me this. Soon after my last visit to the hospital, mom had fallen into a deep coma; they had no idea whether she would ever come out of it. The doctors said there was nothing that could have been done but I knew better, it was me, my fault, I should have been there at her side, there to help her on, yet I did nothing. And now she was gone, lost to me forever, trapped within her own mind, and it was my fault.

Was it because I was still grieving over the loss of my sister? Did I blame her death on my mom? These questions I asked myself that I couldn’t even answer. I don’t recall why I’d done what I had done, yet it had transpired nonetheless. It was foolish, why did I not go to her? Wasn’t the loss of one person so dear to me enough? Was I so willing to avoid doing anything out of fear of being hurt that I would let a wound fester and become infected?

I opened my clenched eyes not to find forest again, but a room filled with cubicles. I knew this place well; it was my lone purpose of existence after everything that had happened. My job and my sole being was right here, within these cubicles. My life consisted of going to work, and going home to sleep. Monotony had become the norm for me, like a dull pain you feel poking at a scab.

“Jackson!” Shouted a voice close to me. I flinched, I knew who it was, only one person every yelled my last name like that, my boss, Peter Harkness.

“I’m sorry Mr. Harkness, it won-” were the words that came from my mouth just like before. I turned to see not my boss standing there… but Applejack dressed up in a suit coat and tie and had an absurd comb over, just like my boss. She stared at me, like a parent with a look of disappointment.

“Jackson…” Applejack sighed and ran a hoof through her hair, or mane, whichever it’s called in this case, “This is the fifth time this month. Now I know you’ve had some tough times, and I knew your mother as she was a good friend of mine, that’s why I gave you this job so you could get started on something in your life. But I can’t keep letting you slide like this, you gotta’ shape up and soon Jackson.” She looked at me like she didn’t quite know what to say. As if she was on the tip of both yelling me out, but also pulling me aside and having a heart to heart.

“I’m- I’m sorry, Mr. Harkness, It won’t happen again, I promise.” I said almost automatically. I remembered this scene well, mostly because of what happened next.

“Listen” Applejack sighs while rolling her shoulders “Why don’t you take the rest of the week off. Go clear your head alright, get your stuff sorted out? But I want you here Monday 9:00 AM sharp, and no more being late either or else that’s it, got it?” She looked at me like she just didn’t know what to do. It’s not like I was making this any easier on her. Mr. Harkness was a good friend of my mom. They were friends ever since high school and he was always like an uncle that I never had. He gave me more breaks than I deserved looking back on it now.

“I-… I will Mr. Harkness.” I replied somberly. Did I really mean it though? I couldn’t remember if I did or not. The words felt hollow, with no life behind them at all. I turned around and everything dissolved away to the sounds of the city. But before it all went away I heard one last thing from behind me.

“Still wallowing in pity after all this time? You gotta stop lying to yourself.”

Cars stopped and went down busy city streets, busses opened and closed their doors to the multitude of passengers as they boarded and departed. The smell of smog and dust was in the air and swirled around me. The city was a great place for someone like me, looking to get lost. It’s easier to get lost into a crowd here than anywhere else.

I stood on a cement platform waiting. I knew this part of my life; after all, it was technically the last part of it as well. There I was on a train platform reading something on my phone, the words blurred to my memory and lost forever. People around me held their own small conversations about their lives, they themselves also blurred to my eyes. Yet there was one that was not, it was her.

A girl, not more than 9, she was blonde with a matching pair of shirt and shorts. She had on these hot pink roller blades that she used to weave in and around people on the platforms. ‘Why the heck aren’t her parents watching her?’ my mind asked. My gaze shifted back to my phone, reading whatever was so important to me at the time.

“Look at you, oblivious to the world around you and absorbed in your own little thoughts.” Scoffed a voice that was eerily familiar as it was disturbing.

I looked up to see just who was talking to me, to find no one standing near me. The crowds were all engaging in their own activities, either blind or not noticing me at all. The crowd on the other side of the tracks seemed to part as a new figure began to emerge.

“A pathetic excuse for a man, one who would rather stew in his own waste than clean himself off and continue on.” The voice said with more venom dripping off its words.

On the other side a lone figure stood. It was another girl, only this one I knew. It was Sophie, but it wasn’t, as her hair was matted and bloodstained, her clothes were torn and she had a look of pure disdain on her face. How, how could she be here? This is impossible! She’s DEAD! My feet stumbled forward in disbelief, how and why were questions that flooded my head.

“Sophie? Is… is that you?” I asked, I myself not even believing the words leaving my mouth. She continued to glare at me from across the way, her gaze never swaying, never faulting. It burned into me, like a searing flame from a red hot iron.

“Look at you now, so caught up in your own memories that you willingly walk to your demise. You’re appalling to even look at.” She said back to me, her voice cutting like daggers into me. I stumbled at her words right onto the tracks; this can’t be Sophie, not my Sophie. She would never say such things. And then the sound came.

The sound of a roar rang out, like a beast of untold darkness running straight for me. I then saw it, what had caused my end, and my journey, that train. Its guise was warped and twisted into a creature of darkness, a mammoth being of metal and black that came for me like the devil himself. It screeched a cry that would cause the bravest man to falter. I looked back to Sophie, still staring down at me from the platform, her eyes unfeeling and uncaring.

“I don’t even pity you anymore, you are just that weak.” She sneered. And then the beast roared again, a roar so loud my very bones quaked and shook in fear. It came for me barreling down the tracks, coming for me, and me alone. Bloodlust is what it craved and only my suffering would give it what it wanted. It cried out again in that otherworldly wail and my world began to slow down.

This was it, this was… is how I died. My life, naught but a man who spent his remaining years in life doing nothing but wallowing in his own discontent. Instead of accepting and moving forward I stood still and let life pass me by, not caring and not feeling. For if I were to feel, I feared all it would be was pain. And that was the heart of the matter, fear. Fear had driven me to introvertedness, to shame and repeating my mistakes. Were I to even attempt to change, the fear would grab hold and tell me, ‘no, you’ll just end up worse than before.’ It was my own twisted sense of self preservation that lead me here to this point. It was a foolish and stupid mistake, one that I easily repeated many times before.

Was this how my life would end, taken away by some monster I couldn’t even fathom of existing? Apparently it was. And I was tired, tired of being afraid, tired of running, of doing nothing but hate myself for my own stupidity. I just wanted it to stop, to end. There was nothing left for me, neither here nor back home. I was exhausted with all of it; just let it all end and be over with. I was done, and I greeted it with open arms.

…

A flicker. A flame. A small feeling in the back of my head. Why? Why was I so determined to give up? True, I was tired, exhausted, beaten, and sore. I had done nothing recently but make the same selfish actions over and over, was that the reason I desired to punish myself? Was this the reason I stared into the approaching beast with eyes drained of their life? No, it was because I was giving up. Giving in. Letting my own pain dominate me and force me to submit. All I had done was replace my fear with my pain for directing my actions and I had enough of it.

Yes, I was a fool—a stupid, selfish fool. I refused to be there for my family when they needed me most. For Sophie’s funeral, for my mom, and for myself. I made these mistakes and instead of bettering myself from them, I let them fester in my heart and let them poison my feelings and thoughts. Had I really come to Equestria to fulfill a promise? Or did I come here to escape from my own past? That didn’t matter now, whatever the original reason was it was unimportant. Right now I needed to make a choice; would I accept what I had done and allow myself to learn from my past sins? Or would I damn myself for my transgressions and let myself succumb to pain and misery?

I took all of one second to have my answer, and in the mind, that felt like an eternity.

Time began to flow faster again and the abomination of darkness and steel tore at me like a flood of demons. I rose to my feet, fire burning in my chest, this time not of pain, but of hope. I may have made bad decisions up till this point, but that is where it would end. Starting now.

“GRAAAAAAAAAAAH!” I roared as I charged at the creature as it charged for me. My voice filled with all the pain, sorrow, regret, and hope that I had boiling inside me. The feelings and the thoughts that I wouldn’t let my actions and consciousness be dominated by this thing anymore. I was done, not with my life, but with running away.

The beast roared back at me and our cries joined together in a chorus of emotion swirling around and echoing through the very stretches of time and space itself. I swung my arm back, winding up and preparing for my best and possibly last struggle for peace in my mind. And when we came within an arm’s distance of each other, I threw my arm forward with all my soul into that punch.

CLANKSH! The sound of metal striking flesh resounded, and for a brief second the world stood still. Then my hand punctured through, steel gave way bending like butter, glass and darkness shattered and broke into fragments around me. The abomination screeched with a ear piercing wail, one that coursed through my hands and body.

“No! MORE!” I screamed as I pushed into the beast and tore right through it. Right down the middle, the beast split off to the left and right of me. Metal and blackness tearing apart like paper to my touch. Blood and oil spilled forth from its inside covering me and the ground with its innards. I howled with rage as I pressed on, the amount of debris and scrap flying blotting out the sky. Screaming one last time I threw my other arm forward and punched it right through the center. A shock wave followed and cleaved the rest of its body right into two, each piece falling to a side. The death rattling wailing of the beast slowly died down as the rumble in the ground ceased as well. I had done it. I had slain the beast. I would no longer let fear control me.

I looked to my side, still standing there on the platform, completely unharmed by the debris or remains of the beast, was Sophie. No, some facsimile of Sophie. I growled at her, I didn’t know who, or what she was, but I’d had enough of her trickery.

“So you killed it? Like that is supposed to make a difference, you are still the same man you’ve always been. You just made another decision to continue your existence and let yourself be shackled by your own inane decisions.” She said condescendingly to me.

“Shut up.” I growled.

“What?” her expression changed for once. Maybe she didn’t expect me to respond, or maybe she didn’t expect me to talk to someone looking like my sister like that. On either accounts she was horribly wrong.

“I don’t know who or what the hell you are, but I am SICK of your games.” I raved at her “Ever since you’ve been calling me selfish, unfaithful, and a liar. Well let me tell you…” I took a step toward her. “You were right.” She falters and her eyes widen, that must have been the last thing she expected me to say.

“W...what?” her voice wavering, she took a step back from me, afraid?

“I was being irrational. I thought only of how to avoid my pain and how I could avoid confronting it as well. The thought of doing so had me making worse decisions. I let myself get so caught up in fear, that I let myself down. But not anymore.” I walked toward her slowly with each step. And she backed away, fear beginning to form on her face. “I’m through with trying to hide from my mistakes, I accept my actions and all the consequences that come from them. I will no longer run from fear, nor will I run from you.” At the last word I towered over her staring down into her eyes. She shivered with dread, looking up at me. I squatted down to her level and stared right into those quaking eyes of hers.

“Now listen to ME.” I said forcefully grabbing the front of her shirt and pulling her eyes closer to mine. “I never want to see you ever again, and if you take the image of my sister, I don’t care how not real you are, I will kick your ass from here to the end of existence. Now LEAVE.” I let go of her and her eyes remained locked to mine, yet they started to change, they softened and seemed to shine brighter than before. Then stepping back she looked at me one last time and smiled.

“Nice of you to finally come to your senses.” She smiled, this time not a smirk but of a soft gentle smile you would give to a family member.

“Go.” I repeated sternly.

“I am, and you won’t be seeing me again, and for that… I’m proud of you. Goodbye, Felix.” She spoke, her body fading away upon the last word. As soon as she was gone, so was everything else; the station, the wreck, and all the smells were replaced with forest. Once again I found myself back with the trees and silence as my companion. Yet this time was different, I didn’t feel quite as in pain as before. I felt lighter, as if a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I scoffed a little at the cliché.

When I stood up I beheld a sight I did not expect, the tree in front of me a huge fallen thing had been split right down the middle, the halves falling to their respective sides. I looked to my hands and saw that there were small blisters and splinters in my knuckles. Did I just break a tree in half with my bare hands? I began to chuckle, then it increased to a laugh, until I was roaring with laughter. I didn’t even know what was so funny; I just kept laughing and laughing.

The laughter soon died down and I sighed deeply. The tree was probably rotten to begin with, and probably already split as well. Breaking a tree in two with my fists... how ridiculous. I took my stick in hand and propped myself up, taking the opportunity to stretch out my legs and work the kinks out, hearing them pop. Afterwards I trudged forward back through the wood, my purpose now different than before. I may have come here to escape from my problems and use only the thinnest of excuses to cover my own real reasons, but now I was past that. I had a promise to keep, and this time I MEANT it.

My pace was steadier and quicker than before, making me feel like I was gaining progress this time. The sounds of wildlife slowly came back to my surroundings, and if that was any sign, I must have been close to the edge of the forest. As if to answer my guesses the canopy started to get less dense, light began to shine through and the forest became that much more illuminated. Much like the surrounding area, my sprits began to brighten. I was so close I could feel it.

“Eeeeyyyaaaa!”

My head jerked to a sound. It sounded like a scream, but that was impossible, who could possibly be in the forest, rig-.

“EEEYAAAA!”

There it was again, and this time I definitely heard it. I changed directions and walked as quickly as I could shuffle along as possible. Whoever it was sounded like they were in deep trouble and-

“Felix! Help me!”

My eyes shot open. No. it can’t be. I dropped the walking stick and began to run.

“FELIX!”

I sprinted. My feet pounded against the ground, my mussels cried out for me to stop, but I ignored it all for the one voice I thought I would never hear again. The screaming continued ahead of me and increased in volume as I got closer.

“I’m coming! Don’t worry, I’m here!” I shouted dryly through my parched throat. Branches and leaves whizzed by me, scratching and giving me new cuts and scrapes on my exposed skin. Light shined ahead and I burst through an opening in the tree line to see a monster… a manticore, looming over a small creature, a girl…

“SOPHIE!?” I cried out. It was her, it couldn’t be possible, but it was her! She was there dressed in the same clothes as the day of the accident. The manticore itself was a haggard sight, it had a ratty mane full of dirt and branches, it seemed to be limping on one of its paws, and its face was covered in blood… wait, it was the SAME one that I had been hunting me across the forest! The bastard was now cornering Sophie up against a very large tree and it was closing in on her. “No… NO, NO, NOOOOO!” I screamed, the stone dagger leapt into my hands as I ran in to save her.

The beast turned in my direction and snarled, even though he couldn’t see me, I bet he knew who I was. I sprinted right at him head on as the manticore raised up one of his giant paws to swipe me, but he would find nothing as I dropped to my feet and slid right under his legs. Using my momentum I grabbed the ugly mug’s scorpion tail at the base. I lifted my arm in the air and slammed the dagger right into the tail. The manticore roared out in pain and bucked back with its back legs. I shot off the ground, my arm still wrapped around the tail I had gripped, and I was flailed around and slammed into the ground each time the Manticore bucked. Groaning, I grabbed the dagger and jammed it in again and again and again into the wound, blood and poison squirted out with each attack. The tail was thrashing about both in pain and in its inability to hit the assailant harming it.

The manticore slammed downward in hopes of throwing me off, causing me to land on the ground and I could feel a crack as one of my legs bent back in the wrong direction. I shrieked in agony as my whole leg cried with a pain I had never felt before. I lashed out with my free leg and struck the manticore right in its groin. The beast buckled forward onto its front paws and howled in pain. I grabbed the manticore’s tail with both of my arms in a tight grip and pulled away from it, pushing away with my one good leg for leverage. The beast roared with rage and tried to lash out at me, but all it did was help me. Its quick movement gave me the necessary force to rip its tail right off of its back, the large wound I had made starting the tear. There was a sickening sound of ripping flesh as the tail came apart from the beast, the tail still thrashed around after I had ripped it free from its owner. My victory was short lived as my face met with a large paw.

I sailed through the air from the strike and crashed into a tree. The beast didn’t let up as it pounced right onto me, tearing its claws into my chest. I screamed and cried in pain, the creature was mauling me and I was unable to stop it. Blood, my blood was all over its paws. It lifted up one of its massive arms to strike me down, and it left itself open when it did so. I shot my free arm up and smashed its nose right into its face with my palm. It stumbled back clutching its nose as blood began to pour out of it.

While the manticore was distracted with its bleeding nose I backed up against the tree and stood on my good leg. The beast still clutching its nose didn’t hear me as I hopped towards it slowly. As soon as I came within striking distance I planned to end it right then and there. I raised both my arms up with dagger in hand, preparing to bring it right down upon its head. Suddenly the beast side swiped me with its paw and I flew to the wayside with my dagger flying out of my hand and landing away from me.

I rolled to a stop with my whole body shaking in pain. The beast stumbled around, its sense of hearing now being its only remaining sense to find me. I looked to my left and saw my dagger, embedded in the ground not more than a few feet from me. I shifted my weight with great effort; it felt as if my whole body was weighed down with a ton of bricks. Slowly I worked my way over to my blade, each shimmy causing a new wave of pain to shoot through me. Behind me the manticore roared at me, it had heard me through my grunts of movement!

I scrambled towards my dagger quicker than before, the manticore charging at me from behind. Closer I came, 5 feet, 4 feet The beast roared again as its heavy paws bounded across the dirt. 3 feet, 2 feet. The manticore charged and bounded off of the ground in a wide arch to pounce on top of me! 1 foot! I GOT IT! I whirled around facing the manticore as its jaws opened up to bite me in two. I shot my arm up with the dagger at its face hoping to strike it dead on, but I missed. The manticore’s mouth enclosed on my arm and bit down on top of it. I wailed as blood squirted out of its teeth and into my eyes. My mind began to black out, begging for no more. But I wouldn’t, I couldn’t and I would not let this creature kill me!

“I’m Felix Jackson!” I screamed at the manticore, “And I hope you choke on it you son of a bitch!” The dagger, still in my hand which was inside the manticore's mouth, dove upwards with a jerk of my arm. The rock blade pierced through the roof of its mouth and straight into the brain. I smashed the dagger with my fist again and again, its mouth not letting me go. With one last hit I stuck the dagger all the way into its skull with a disgusting sound of blood and bone matter being crushed.

The manticore’s eyes glazed over and slowly its jaw loosened. And then with a mighty ‘whoomph’, the beast fell on the ground, finally dead. My arm plopped out of its mouth hanging limply at my side. My head swirled with adrenaline and pain, I had been to hell and back, and I had killed a legendary creature of mythology. I would have laughed if I had been lucid enough to. My thoughts were interrupted as I heard a female voice behind me quiver.

I turned my head to see her, Sophie staring at me like she couldn’t believe it was me. I pushed off with my good arm and crawled slowly toward her.

“Sophie… are you *Cough*… okay?” I asked, the cough bringing up some blood with it that I spat on the ground.

“Aaa….aaa….” Sophie said softly, her voice quivering in fear. Achingly I inched closer to her, my body becoming heavier and heavier with each movement.

“S- *Cough Cough*… Sophie… I’m…” I croaked out. Blackness seemed to encroach on my vision and the world seemed to blur. My arm gave out and I slumped to the ground. I strained my neck to see her. She looked down upon me, and she had her hand to her mouth, shocked.

“My God... Sophie, *Cough*” I said as more blood come up. I held out my hand to her, wanting to hold her hand, one last time. “I’m… so... so sorry… Sophie.” My arm collapsed, as did my head as darkness enveloped me and the last thing I saw of Sophie, was a blur. A blur of yellow and pink.

Black, all I could see was Black. Black above and below, to my left and right. And there I stood, at least I THINK I was standing, while my mind raked itself trying to figure out what I was doing here. Oh right, I was dead.

Or was I? This all felt oddly familiar, yet completely different from what I remembered from the first time I died. I tried shouting out for someone, but no words left my mouth. Then something changed, I saw in the distance a glow begin to form, it was bright, brighter than anything I had ever seen before. The glow from it radiated warmth and something else. It gave me a sense of peace. The light enveloped me and I felt my whole body tingle at its touch.

I was reminded of old days when I was sick in bed as my mother sat on my bed and stroked my hair. That feeling of tranquility, of safety, and of love, that is what it felt like. The light grew brighter and soon I heard sounds. The sounds of chirps, bird calls of all kinds chirping in the distance, and then I felt something new. Warmness on my cheek as if caressed by a hand of a loving parent. Then my eyes opened.

The world slowly came into focus, I was laying down on my back. It was soft, possibly a bed? And I saw a figure looming over me whose shape was hard to make out and it said something in a soft voice. It moved away to the edge of the bed to check on my leg. It was wrapped up in gauze and a makeshift splint as far as I could tell, the shapes formed slowly and colors began to become sharper. Which is when I saw her at the edge of my bed, there before me, was a blonde coated, pink maned Pegasus... Fluttershy.

There was nothing that I had seen before that could have done her justice to how she looked. Before, all I had seen of these characters were just pastel colors on a 2-D plane, but this wasn’t animation, this was real and by God was it astonishing. Her coat was light yellow mixed with shades of orange around her hooves and tan around her eyes. Her coat shimmered in the light much like a horse coat would, yet the hairs themselves looked soft like catfur. Her pink mane was the softest shade of pink you could see, like cream and red mixed together and layered with light dashes of white at the tips of her hair.

From the show I knew their eyes would be big, and that remained true. What I failed to even imagine was how deep and full of color they were. When you look up close at an eye, you can see the waves of color and shifting tones within the iris. For ponies that shift in color was overwhelming. Her eyes were a menagerie of teal and cyan swirling around in a whirlpool of color. It was like looking at the spiraling pictures of Van Goph coming to life in the eyes of another living being. Then there were her wings.

Good lord her wings, they were the most otherworldly, angelic things I had ever seen in my entire life. Her feathers, the same color as her coat, were colored near the tips as if each one was dipped into a soft coating of tan. Her feathers looked as soft as goose feathers, yet as strong as an eagle’s. Her primaries seemed to flick about as she moved, maybe as a subconscious reaction, or maybe it was similar to a person flexing their fingers.

She gently ran her hoof over the splint checking to be sure it was completely fashioned. That’s when she hit a sore spot and I groaned. She eeped in shock and moved over to my head, her large cerulean eyes staring right into mine. I don’t think she knew I was lucid as she continued to speak something I couldn’t quite understand. She must have been trying to calm me down or maybe comfort me... huh, being comforted by Fluttershy after all that, it kind of felt worth it. I then started to feel something, a faint pulling sensation, one that wanted to bring me to sleep.

No I didn’t want to sleep. Not after all this, I wanted to be awake, to say hi and thank her for helping me. I had traveled so far and been through so much I didn’t want to rest, not yet. And then the feeling continued, and it increased. I realized what it wanted, and my mind cried out no. No! I didn’t want to go! I worked so hard to get here! I changed! I promised to be better about myself, to live life with no regrets and face my consequences, but the urge insisted. I wailed in my mind, it wasn’t fair, it wasn’t fair at all. I couldn’t leave, not now, not like this. The inevitability pressed itself upon me like a looming shadow across my soul, time was so very precious now, for I had little left to spend. As she talked, I knew what I had to do. I didn’t have much time, I knew that. I slowly moved up one of my arms, and Fluttershy froze still.

I moved my arm slowly around her neck, she began to quiver, but that stopped as I pulled her into my chest. I held her in my arm, she didn’t even struggle, all she did was squeak out something that sounded like ‘…light’. I squeeze her firmer and tears began to flow down my face. I could feel her heartbeat through my chest, her breath as it left her nostrils tickling my skin. Her soft coat bristled against my chest and her soft mane gracefully landed on my face. It was the softest thing I think I ever could have felt, soft and warm, like a pet cat but much larger and much gentler than a cat could ever be. I took one last deep breath.

“Th…ank…you.”

“Alright Fluttershy, I just sent the letter to the Princess, hopefully she’ll get ba-” Twilight interrupted herself as she came into the room to see that the creature had her friend around one of its appendages and pulled close to it. Fearing for her friend’s well being, Twilight jumped over to her friend’s side. “Fluttershy, are you alri-!”

“Shhh, Twilight I’m fine.” Fluttershy spoke to her friend without moving her head to face her. Twilight stopped close to her friend and examined closely what was happening; it looked almost like the creature was… hugging her. “He just wants somepony near him, I think he’s afraid.”

“Right… afraid.” Twilight said unsure of the idea of this creature even being afraid of anything. Of the little Fluttershy told her this creature had come to Fluttershy’s aid when she failed to calm a raging manticore. The creature was able to take down a monster many times its size. Such a feat was impressive enough, but that fact that it did it while apparently already injured was astonishing.

“T-Twilight!” Fluttershy gasped, breaking Twilight out of her musings. Fluttershy turned to Twilight and Twilight say that tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. “His heart stopped…”

So here I stood, once again facing down Death itself. He sighed and shook his head. Then he looked at me, and though his face was indescribable I could get the feeling he took no enjoyment as what was to happen.

“I am sorry Felix.” He said somberly “But you know, you can not go back home now.” I sighed at his statement, but I smiled back at him.

“It’s alright, I kind of expected that anyway.”

“Well, we better get going then.” Death stated as he turned and began to walk away into the abyss of white nothingness.

“Wait, Death.” I asked, in almost a pleading tone. He stopped and turned around to face me; he tilted his head slightly and folded his arms.

“Yes?” he asked me with a tone that made me feel like he knew what I was going to ask.

“I know I haven’t given you the easiest time, and that you have all the power at your disposal to say no…” I said to him as I got on my knees, “but please, before we go, there’s something I have to do, I have a promise I made, and I intend to keep it. So please… please help me.” At the last sentence my voice broke and it came out in a sob.

He stared at me. For the longest time he just looked at me, as if weighing his options, or maybe he was just drawing it out to see if I would say any more. he then set his arms at his side and motioned me over.

“Fine, but you are forbidden to tell anyone about it. And if you do tell, I will deny it.”

I merely smiled back at him with thanks.

Somewhere, in some graveyard under a tree on a hill sits two graves. Etched on one is ‘Felix Jackson, beloved Son and Brother, May your spirit always be free and happy.’ Next to it stands another stone, this one reading ‘Sophie Jackson, cherished Daughter and Sister, may angels hold you in their arm and their warmth bring you peace.’ New flowers adorn both of the graves and the dirt was recently disturbed around the former. Flowers of every kind were placed there, from tulips and daisies to roses and orchids. It was a regular garden place upon these stones. The one thing that stuck out the most was a toy doll of a yellow pony sitting in front of the latter; a note had been pinned to it.

‘Dear Sophie,

I did it. Sorry it took me so long, she says she can’t wait for you to come and play with her. See you soon, sis.

Love, F’

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revamp Notes:

There wasn't much to change in this chapter. Now that i re read this, I really did have the most fun writing Felix's tripping balls scenes. Something about trying to write what an addled mind can only describe in its confusion is both a challenge and a fun experiment. My favorite bit is him hallucination ponies as people from his life. Each of the ponies representing the virtue that he is going against at the same time. Selfishness, Disloyalty, and Dishonesty. I think what made this scene so easy to write is that we've all had moments like this in our lives. Moments where we don't care about others, moments where we lie to ourselves, and moments where we care only about our own pain.

You know how some authors write a fic, just for the sake of ONE joke, or one scene? This was that scene. A scene where it strips down a character to his faults and throws them right in his face. Forcing him to relive the worst of both himself and of his past. I wanted to have a fic where we would question all these OCs we read about. What REALLY is going on in their heads of theirs? Who are they and what makes them tick? And Felix was my attempt to answer that question.

OLD NOTES:
Well this was a long time coming.

I had written this whole chapter back in early December, but I reread it and found it... lacking shall we say? I think it now has the emotional punch that I wanted this story to end on. I also wanted to have my final chapter with some illustrations, and I think they turned out rather well. Maybe in my next story I'll do that more often.

Once again thank you to the lovely wazaga for helping em with the images, you can find her awesome art here:
http://wazaga.deviantart.com

So is this the end of "Cheating Death"?

...

For this act it is at least...

He he he.

Ch. 6 Cheating Death

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Edited by HoovesMcCoy, AuthorGenesis, and Anonymous
Chapter 6 - Cheating Death

I sat in a wooden recliner chair, and across the desk in front of me sat Death, going over paperwork. If someone were to read that last sentence out loud it would sound like the start of some horrible joke, but it was no laughing matter to me, because it was true. Death moved back and forth across his desk scribbling on one sheet of paper and then sliding over to the next to do the same. After he was done with those papers he slid them all into a pile and paperclipped them before he threw the whole bunch into a pile of papers that had nearly reached the ceiling of the room we were in.

“So...” I started to say, stopping as the words got stuck in my throat. I wasn’t quite sure what to say. After the whole experience I was feeling rather drained. I decided to go with the first thing that came to me. “How ya doin’?” I asked. In hindsight that was probably the worst thing I could have asked him at that moment. Death stopped as soon as I had asked and he stared right into my eyes, with a glare that said ‘If you weren’t already dead, I’d kill you right now.’

“How... am I doing you ask?” Death repeated back to me, “How. Am. I. DOING?!” At the last word his voice broke into a falsetto screech and he slammed his fists onto his desk sending papers flying all over. “I am currently BURIED in an entire mountain of paperwork covering your little... excursion.” Death lamented, the last word dripping like venom from his mouth “And to top it all off, not only did you break the dimensional divide, and kill a class 3 predator, but you also interacted with the locals!” Death ranted at me, his voice getting squeakier with each word.

“So I take it that’s a bad thing then?” I asked coyly. Death did a double take at my sentence before he began to shudder in rage.

“Yes it is bad, you idiot! Not only am I now responsible with balancing the ratio of predator to prey in the Everfree Forest, but also, I have to adjust the entire Equestrian civilization perspective range due to the discovery of YOU!” Death yelled emphasizing his point with a bony finger jabbing in my direction. Death then slowly sat back down in his chair and deeply sighed followed by a shudder. “And then there is the matter of you, yourself...” I in return, sighed as well. I had really fucked up, and I thought that at this point, even asking for Purgatory would be aiming too high.

“So what do I get then, 5th circle? 7th? Heck I wouldn’t be surprised if you sent me to the 9th.” I predicted. There wasn’t much I could have done at that moment to prevent him from obliterating me and sending me to the furthest reaches of hell for the... hell that I had put him through, so I might as well have gone with at least some dignity intact. Before I could muse any longer however, a new letter popped into existence right in front of Death. Both he and I watched how it fluttered down onto the desk in front of him Death picked up the letter and tore it open. Removing the contents and unfolding them he began to read while muttering what he was reading out loud to himself.

I watched him as he read, his expression didn’t change as he did so. Though to be fair its hard to read someone when their face is still an indescribable... something. Then he stopped, he sat completely still, and he looked up at me, and then back down to the page in his hands, and then to me again. Death let out a deep sigh, one filled with exhaustion and frustration. He laid the paper on his desk and took a pen. After a few seconds of furiously scribbling over it, Death stopped and looked up at me twiddling the pen between his fingers..

“You know,” he lamented to me, “even if there is nothing I would love more than to send you to the space between universes, and have you experience true nothingness for a few centuries... I unfortunately can not. It seems that you are now a special case at the moment.” He looked up at me, possibly trying to gauge my reaction, which was confusion.

“What do you mean with ‘special case’?” I questioned, lacing the last two words with confusion. Death sighed again, but he let out a chuckle this time before answering.

“Well according to this..” Death paused as he coughed and cleared his throat before he began to read in a very monotone and bureaucratic way, “In the case of souls experiencing dimensional shift by any means, the soul in question should have its acclimation point be the soul’s dimension of origin in the case of becoming deceased. In the case of souls possibly existing in theirnew domain for more than a standard day (As dictated by article ‘DAY ONE’ to the timing of said days in the multiverse) the soul in question will have a new acclimation point be arranged to the universe of their current residence of existence. Should the soul in question wish to take up challenge to this, please see article- yadda yadda yadda.” Death cut himself off and then end and breezed over a large chunk of the words, all while muttering to himself, and then returned to reading the letter at the end. “Therein, we find the current charge of Death-13493B, the one titled,‘Felix Christine Jackson,’to be placed on soul probation until further notice, and to have his acclimation point be designated to his new universe of residence.”

I sat there trying to absorb what he had just said to me, unfortunately I didn’t speak legal jargon at all. So I sat there with a confused look on my face until I asked the most obvious question. “So... What in the heck does any of that mean?” Death chuckled and set the paper down, he folded his hands and leaned forward toward me on his desk.

“It means kid, that the higher ups have decided to let you keep on living.” Death explained, leaning back as he continued. “It looks like you will have to wait for the afterlife a little longer.”

I was actually quite surprised, they were letting me go after all that? I guessed even bureaucrats aren’t above a little leeway now and then. I smiled at Death saying, “Well thanks. So, I guess I get a second chance to shape up my life after all.”

“Oh ho ho, you misunderstand kid.”, Death corrected “Remember back when I told you, ‘You can not go back home now.’? Well I was being serious.” I sat there digesting this, and after some consideration a question dawned on me.

“Then, what exactly is going to happen to me?”

“Oh you’re going back to ‘A’ universe. Just not your home.” I sat and my brain slowly registered what he was implying.

“You mean...?” I held off with a large grin on my face. Death just sighed and facepalmed.

“Yes, it means you’re going back to Equestria.” Death affirmed. I was dumbstruck and stood there for a whole minute looking like a deer in the headlights. Then my smile grew larger and larger until I felt like I would rocket out of my chair in glee. “And if you even think about dancing in my office I’ll send you back as a vegetable.” Death added.

“Oh, why would I ever think of doing that?” I said with the biggest shit-eating grin on my face. Truthfully I was a tad disappointed I couldn’t go home. I guess those are the breaks when you mess with the afterlife. Death moved over and grabbed another paper, one I recognized immediately as a reinsertion form, the very same kind I altered that started this whole thing. He started to write feverishly when a thought came to my mind.

“Hey, Death?” He continued to write but motioned me to go on “I... I wanted to say thank you. For letting me do that back there.” This actually got him to stop. He looked up and sighed before saying.

“Yeah, don’t mention it.” Death responded. “No I'm serious, don’t mention it. At all. I’d have to fill out a whole other mountain for the ‘Last Words to Family’ section.” I nodded back with a smile. For all his posturing as a grumpy civil servant he seemed to be a rather nice guy. Death set down his pen and stamped the form causing it to disappear before my eyes.

“Well then Mr. Jackson, this is where we part.” Death announced holding out his hand. I reached over the desk and shook it firmly. “Once again have a good life... and for the love of the Creator don’t die anytime soon alright?”

“Speak for yourself Death, I plan on living forever.” I smirked back at him as everything faded away to blackness. It felt calm, like I was adrift in the realm of nothingness and the universe itself stood still around me.

Then the universe moved. It exploded with a menagerie of light and color. Stars and galaxies whizzed by my eyes, while supernovas and nebulas ran through my feet. All of it flew by me at the speed of light yet it was as beautiful as anything that could ever be imagined by the human mind.

So this was it, after all my time living my life as a normal person on Earth, I’m going where no man has gone before. To a world that is governed by different laws of physics, to where magic grew strong, to where creatures from man’s mythology roam the wilds. A land that is filled with a peace-loving race and whose calm demeanor had allowed them to build a near utopia of a kingdom. It would be a nice place to settle down, to relax and take life one day at a time. To reflect back on what lead me here and enjoy the rest of my days in the relaxing comfort of serenity...

Well fuck that shit!

Seriously, who would be wanting to ‘settle down’ after all that?! I fought my way through a killer forest! I killed a beast of legend! And heck, I HUGGED Fluttershy! If anything, I was just getting started in this universe. I didn’t know what lay on the road ahead of me, but I was ready to meet it head-on without fear, even if it tried to kill me! After all, if there was one thing I was good at, it was cheating death.

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revamp Notes:

Really there wasn't much to change in this chapter. Its purpose was to say that the story continues and really that's all that is needed here.

Honestly I'm glad i could get HoovesMcCoy and and AuthorGenesis to help me fix the kinks in this fic. Though there weren't many it still wasn't the PERFECT that I wanted it to be. So thank you guys, you are freaking awesome. And I apologize for being an annoying author who can't take criticism worth a darn. XP

OLD NOTES:

And that is the END of ACT 1 fillies and gentlecolts. It's been a long time coming, but the adventures of Felix C. Jackson, are just beginning. Of course he gets to go back into his horribly bruised, beat, bloodied, and broken body. But how he deals with that is another story, literally. I will start ACT 2 (Name pending, suggest one if you will) next week Sunday. And after that a new chapter will come out every week. Oh but these won't be your normal sized chapters, each one will be over ten thousand words each. I plan on each chapter being like an episode of MLP, complete with setup, action and ending. And maybe even more depending on time.

Will there be drawings? Depends on the week. Will there be more sads? Possibly, I do love tearing out your hearts and showing them to you. Will this decent into another typical BiE story where everything goes his way and everyone loves him and he turns out to be the chosen one with godly powers? Oh HELL nah.

If I haven't made myself clear by now, I LOVE defying expectations. Felix's adventures are going to get wild and freakin' crazy. Also a lot more humorous. The next ACT will have MORE OCs, MORE ACTION, MORE ROMANCE (Not likely) AND MORE EXPLOSIONS.

What? There weren't any explosions in this act? Lemme fix that. *Presses button*

*Meanwhile back in the Everfree, a rotting manticore corpse explodes in a fiery blaze of pyrotechnics*

There, now everything is fixed. But not everything is planned dear audience.

Tell me what you liked, or didn't like about this story. And tell me what you would like to see or see MORE of in the next act. I can't improve unless I know my audience. :D

Again, thank you all for the kind words and the suggestions and the pointing out of my horrible grammar, I couldn't have made this story as big a success as it was without you guys. See you next week!

Act II

The story continues...

Cheating Death Act II: Five of a Kind and One Joker

Epilogue

The following is a non-profit fan-based work of fiction. My Little Pony Friendship is Magic and all subsidiaries are owned by Hasbro studios, DMX media and Lauren Faust.

Cheating Death

Written by Wilizin

Epilogue

What defines a man? Is it our beginnings or our ends? Our choices or our fates? Can a man who is presented the opportunity for change take it and then use it correctly? Or will he squander it and waste the chance?

It is said that the Devil is the cause of Man's suffering. That he is responsible for the corruption and destruction of Man. Yet one has to wonder, does man truly need the help? Do we create our own evils? Or are they brought upon us?

Man has shown the capacity for great evil, and at the same time the possibility for great good. So what makes you choose one over the other? That is a question I think that no one can answer, but yourself.

Author's Note

06/06/2013 Revision Notes:

These were some of the things I wanted 'Cheating Death' to be about when I first wrote it. I don't consider myself to be any type of philosopher, more so just a guy who asks the odd question here and there.

While 'Cheating Death' is no 'War and Peace' I still would like to think its able to make the reader take a second and think about themselves as a fan of something, and also what drives us to achieve our promises and dreams.

I hope you all enjoyed this story. And I hope you enjoy my further tales of Felix and Death in the next act as well. :D