That didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
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That didn't hurt as much as I thought it would.
Rainbow Dash’s eyes blinked open straining against the brightness, her mind still spinning and ears ringing from…from. She stopped. What had just happened? It felt like she was forgetting something important.
As her vision woozily moved into focus she looked up. Magic and lightning arcing through the air. Storm clouds swirling like huge anvils.
Oh yeah! That’s what she was forgetting to do. FLY!!! Her wings snapped open to catch the air and... nothing?
A pang of fear ran through her she flexed her wings to no avail. She was tough (maybe the toughest) but a fall from this height would reduce her to blueberry jam.
Except…
She wasn’t falling?
Senses no longer ringing she ‘sat up’ in the air and looked around. She seemed to be suspended some way below the maelstrom. Not only was she not moving the storm was frozen as well. Her eyes narrowed. Or was it just moving very slowly? She decided to vocalise her frustrations. “What the hay is going on?!”
A voice came from the ether. “Well you’re having a near Death experience. So as a result I’m having a near Rainbow Dash experience.”
With a rather undignified shriek Dash span in the air. “Who the hell are you?!” she yelled, still tumbling head over heels, and glaring at the grey pony that had inexplicably appeared hovering next to her.
Instead of the answering, the pony simply smiled knowingly at her. He watched calmly as Rainbow glared at him, before slowly her expression was overtaken by horrified realisation before sliding into a suspicious glare, eyebrows coming together like a pair angry caterpillars.
“NEAR Death experience you say?”
“Haha! Yep!” Death answered happily clapping his hooves. “That’s the kind of reaction I expected! If you’ll look up there,” He continued pointing up above Rainbow. She looked where Death was pointing and saw a body falling through the air like treacle. It was burned and bruised but unmistakably HER “You got struck by lightning. But in about 10 seconds from now in the real world, your dear friend Twilight will catch you and use her magic to restart your heart. But for the time being your soul is stuck here in spooky spirit time.”
Rainbow let out a long breath of relief. “Oh….whew….ok.” She didn’t know how but she knew in her gut this figure…Death…was real and telling her the truth. Crisis over! It almost seemed silly. “Aha…ahhahah! I died from being struck by lightning?” She laughed, “Oh that’s lame! I’ve been hit plenty of times and I’ve been fine.”
“Well you see there’s this interstellar magneto-plasmic…” Death started, before being cut off by Rainbows waving limbs.
“No! No! No!” she said, “Those were egghead nerd words Twilight used and she didn’t make a lick of sense to me.” Memories of the past few hours had begun to filter back, Twilight had been very insistent they break up this weird storm ASAP but had been two het-up to explain what was going on properly. “Explain in normal pony words.”
Death paused for a second before continuing. “Big magic space storm out in space. Some of it hit Equus. Made your clouds all angry with extra zappy lightning. Zappy enough to give Dashie an owie.”
“Right!” Rainbow exclaimed, “Now if Twilight had just said that we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation!”
“Would you have it any other way?”
“Ehh…I suppose not, still, better too much nerd than not enough.”
“Oh and before you ask; no I won’t tell you how you’re ACTUALLY going to die. Well that and I don’t…actually know… but hey you’re probably not going to remember any of this, so it wouldn’t matter if I did know anyway.”
“Ehh, why ruin the surprise.” Rainbow shrugged, “I aint got time for all that self-fulfilling prophecy nonsense.” The two laughed for a moment, despite it all she felt rather at ease with this amicable grey earth pony floating with her in the ether. “Hey, you’re not really what I expected from the Grim Reaper?”
“Oh am I not? I suppose you were expecting a cloak, bones and a big old scythe.”
“Yeah… or some kind of Alicorn with a ghastly colour scheme.”
“HA! Well maybe Death is like that for some people. But... I’m your death… so I guess that makes me pretty chill.”
“My Death?” Rainbow wondered.
“Everyone sees the concept of death differently do they not?” Death replied, “why would the one who comes for them be one way over another. That being said; it’s not like there’s one of us for every one of you. In truth no one knows how many of us there are.”
“So death is a mystery even to Death himself huh?”
“Rude.”
Rainbow Dash sat back in the air, just breaking through the cloud layer Twilight had just come into view. “Wow she looks rough.” Her friends face was a mess, streaming with tears and mucus running from her nose. Eyes stretched into saucers in almost unfathomable horror.
“Well weirdly enough she did just watch one of her best friends die.” Death shrugged
“Oh yeah… duh.” Rainbow face-hoofed. Looking up again she picked out her own limp body as it fell in slow-mo back towards her. It looked like it was maybe halfway. “Hey Twilight!” She yelled up, voice cracking slightly, “I’m gonna alright, OK? Hang in there…”
“Funny.” Death remarked, “You sound far more upset learning that you’ve distressed Twilight than when learning that you almost died.”
“Hey, firstly any old idiot can get struck by lightning and die. But not everyone has to deal with the fact that you dragged your best friend up into a freaky space storm and got them struck by lightning and almost killed.” Rainbow pointed emphatically up at Twilight to the bemused Death, “And secondly, because Twilight is so awesome I know she’ll be taking all that angst and putting it into fussing over me and insisting I don’t get out of bed for like two weeks at least.”
“You really care about her don’t you?”
“Uh, yeah?”
“I mean like REALLY care about her.”
“I don’t know what you mean.” Dash lied needlessly, her flushing cheeks instantly giving her away. She turned trying to hide it as Death squee’d like a nerd.
“You should tell her when you wake up. It’ll be really romantic!”
“No! It’s not like that!”
“Oh no…sweep her into a kiss when you come round! Just go right for it. I know what I’m talking about here.”
“NO! And what do you know? YOU’RE DEATH!”
“All Death does is watch the living.” Death said, “I see you Rainbow Dash. And remember, you probably won’t directly remember any of this. If you can’t be honest to me who can you be?”
Rainbow Dash let out a very long sigh. Now Rainbow Dash was not the most sensitive or empathic of ponies, but she felt the concealed forlornness seeping through deaths voice. “Ugh. Ok fine. Twilight is very cool. Like maybe just as cool as I am. And yeah I do kinda have feelings for her. But she’s always been a little… hard to work out in that department. And as stupid cliché as it sounds I really don’t want to wreck our friendship by making things weird you know? She means too much to me for that.”
“It’s not silly. You are the element of loyalty after all. You’re being loyal to your friendship.”
“And it’s not like I’m crying myself to sleep every night about it. She’s awesome either way.”
“Sorry, I guess I got a little overexcited there.”
“Juuuuuust a tad.”
“Well in my turn to be stupid cliché; life is short… I would know… and I’ve seen WAY too many ponies miss chances for happiness like that.”
There was no doubt now. Death spoke of love like someone who had only ever watched it from afar. Which obviously made sense… he was Death for Celestia’s sake! Her problems made sense in context, but why would an entity like Death even be capable of that?
“Are you ok?” Rainbow Dash asked, “Hey if I won’t remember this… you can tell me right? If Death can’t be honest…?”
“HA I guess that’s fair.” Death said, hovering closer. “I guess… I’m just lonely… you know? I can’t normally talk to the dead souls of ponies for this long and those conversations are usually a bit more…on topic… shall we say? And sure, I can talk to the others of my kind but…well…” Rainbow Dash wasn’t sure when it had happened but Death had taken up the classic therapist’s couch position. Which made sense given they were floating. What she couldn’t work out where the pair of glasses now perched across her nose had come from.
She smelt Pinkie in the offing.
“You can’t talk to the other Deaths because?” Rainbow motioned.
“I…I think we’re forgetting how to be ponies.”
“…….What?!”
Death shifted uncomfortably. “I…I know that I haven’t always existed. I don’t know when but there was definitely a time when I came into existence… and I think there will come a time when I no longer am. There’s definitely other Deaths I don’t see anymore.” Dash could barely believe it. He looked scared, maybe the fear of the end truly was that universal. “And I know that I gain some sort of sustenance from moving souls on” He continued, “…not eating them you understand? Moving them along”
“Ehh… You don’t look the type for soul munching.”
“I sometimes wonder… I wonder if once my kind and your kind weren’t so different. But long ago something... took us apart.”
“You know what? This is the kind of weird mystery stuff Twilight loves. You keep saying I won’t remember any of this but you know what?”
“Uh... what?”
“I’m Rainbow Dash! I memorised the entire history of the Wonderbolts out the corner of my eye in 15 minutes! I’m not gonna let a little thing like oxygen deprivation to the brain stop me from remembering all about how I met the freaking Grim Reaper.” She smirked. “You’re lucky buddy that I’m just too awesome to die yet.”
“HAHA!”
“At the very least I’ll remember how enthusiastic you were about me and Twi. If a cool dude like you thinks it’s worth a shot after all.”
“*sniff*…you ponies make friends so easily don’t you?”
“Nah I’m just so awesome everybody already wants to be my friend. Even if they haven’t met me yet.”
“Hehe, maybe so…but if you do think you can remember any of this… I have a message of sorts if we may be serious for a minute.”
“So… we weren’t being serious before?”
“Yes..no?...anyway, so whatever you decide with Twilight, though you know my opinion on that, can you just… try and make sure she’s in a good place in about…ehh… 4 months or so…”
“What happens in 4 months?”
“There’s a … presence coming. It’s not evil…but…uhhh…”
“Trouble?”
“You could say that. Your world is steeped in tragedy, more than you could ever know. And this being…He’s going to bring back to the surface that which was lost with the first of your kind. I just… hope your friends are ready… the one who is coming wears tragedy like an old cloak. Scares the hell out of me.”
“Alright, I’ll pass on the message.” Looking up she saw the body had almost reached her astral self, and Twilight was only a few meters behind. “Well looks like its time to go.”
“Indeed, well this has been fun.”
“One last thing before I go. Do you have a proper name?” Rainbow asked, as by unconscious impulse she took up a position mirroring her bodies. “I mean if there are other Deaths… or Fell Ponies or whatever you are… I mean calling you ‘Death’ seems little egotistical.”
“Huh… no I guess I don’t, any suggestions?”
“Well you look like a grey earth pony so………….Grey?”
“…….”
“…….”
“Perfect.” Grey said, bowing to Rainbow, “Well so long Rainbow Dash. I hope we do not meet for a very long time.”
“HA! I’m not planning on dying again ever.”
With a final raucous laugh Grey vanished from view. Rainbow’s body fell the final few feet and merged with her spirit. It was weird; dying? That hadn’t hurt at all. Getting resuscitated? Now that HURT. I mean the mouth-to-mouth was a nice surprise but the rib cracking chest compressions? Now they were the real killer!
Author's Note
Just to be clear Dashie lives