The Grave Digger's Daughter 2

Sequal to Grave Digger's Daughter 1

The Grave Digger's Daughter II

Chapter 1: One Last Good-Bye

Obsidian was a young mare of sixteen, she was wanting to gout and hang out with some other old friends from school; her father had said, "No Obsidian, not today, I would like for you spend time with me today maybe tomorrow and.......this is really" he was cut off with a sharp retort:
"You've said that for weeks! Damn it! It feels like you just want me not to make friends or the very least keep the ones that I have!" After a few more outbursts she stormed out of the small house into the brisk autumn weather turning her head around and yelled, "Hope you die soon!!"
As she sat with her friends drinking sodas and talking about everything, even the fight she had with her father.
"You said that to your father!" Exclaimed a mint green earth pony named Minty.
"Minty is right Obsidian, you need to talk more respectfully to your father. As old as he is, every day with you is more precious and important to him." Replied a light gray unicorn named Vapor.
she noticed that a pain in her heart that had been there the whole day was getting worse. It suddenly kicked in sharp and she placed a hoof over her heart and cringed. She stood and hurried home. When she arrived she saw her father laying on the couch and snoring loudly. As her eyes peered around the room she caught sight of a piece of paper on the coffee table nearby; she picked it and read it quietly. She gasped silently as she read that her father's lung cancer was progressing worse, and as she thought about her chest pains had started a few months back.......had she sensed that his time was drawing close. The timing fit and she thought about the past few months she had been a horrible daughter. Days turned weeks and Obsidian was there more for her father. Then the day came. She was leaving to visit friends. The moment she walked to the mailbox, she stopped; looking back the pain in her chest kicked in harder than ever. Why had her father pushed so hard for her to be with Minty & Vapor? Turning completely around ran to the house. This was the day she knew it! She was just in time to catch her father from falling as the lungs gave out from cancer ravishing them. As her father perished, she sang to him the lullaby he sang to her..........it was her way of saying good-bye. As his eyes closed she leaned her head down and whispered so gently it was sounding angelic to his ears, "Goodbye father, I love you so very much."

Chapter 2: Journal Entries

Obsidian sat at her father's desk and noticed a large book was set in a prominent place in the center and was colored a bright red. She took it off the shelf and realized that it was a journal with several pages marked. As she opened to the first marked page and was horrified at what she read:
January 2, 1990
Today our dear Obsidian lost her mother, she is not yet a year old but seems to be blessed or cursed and yet I can't decide which. The last time one of our lines was gifted in this way was ten generations ago........
the gift of sensing the death of somepony. For the entirety of a week, Obsidian has been more clingy and having chest pains. The day the pains stopped was when my wife & her mother died. Someday I'll tell her this; she may hate me for not telling sooner if I don't tell her when I die.
She remembered that day, she had her friends Vapor and Minty there and they had seen the whole thing. That entry had made her cry, and cry a lot. Why hadn't father tell her this? Was he afraid she'd get enraged and storm out of the house as she did before his death?
The next entry was equally hard to take like all the rest. The next entry marked was around when she was about eight years old.
July 3, 1998
Today Obsidian got her cutie mark, a broken heart with angel wings wrapped around it. She was meant to be a comforter of some kind, it happened on a day when visiting a sick friend of mine that she wouldn't leave his side, as I had business to tend to I let her stay. As I returned several hours later I saw her cutie mark had appeared whilst I was away and it was made known that my friend had passed away when the cutie mark appeared. I don't know how to tell her that she was born to comfort those ponies who are living their last hours. Sweet Celestia, I hope I get the courage to tell her soon!
June 5, 2003
Today, Obsidian and I knocked heads; I didn't feel comfortable with her hanging out with certain colts in her class who were known to be bad company. How did I go wrong? She had snuck out and the next thing I know I'm being summoned to the police station where she was sitting in hoof-cuffs. I easily could've bailed her out but I had warned her and didn't listen. I must say it broke my heart to leave her there to learn her lesson the hard way. This was the fifth time his year this happened I finally broke and walked out without her............she begged me not to leave her but I had to tell her that this was for her good.
She remembered this day, why was she so dumb and ignored her father's warning; five times ignored him. She kicked herself realizing that her younger teen years caused such heartache.
October 4, 2006
Today I had to tell Obsidian that for a season I wasn't able to afford to send her to school she was enraged, to say the least. Obsidian started acting out again. She got busted for theft.........again! I wish her mother was here, but alas she isn't. I hope she levels out soon this rollercoaster is gonna kill me if old age doesn't.
Several more entries were along this line the most current entry made her scream in agony in the silent cottage.
August 15, 2012
Obsidian and I fought again today, I tried to convince her to stay home but she walked out the door saying she wished I would hurry up and die. I should've told her long ago but I have lung cancer and I could die any day now. Today I could tell was gonna be one of my last; those bits I've saved for her education would've been enough to get the treatment I needed, but I'd rather try to help her along to get out of making a skimp living digging graves. She's a good mare really, strong-willed like her mother but has a kind heart like her too. I have a feeling she'll read this journal when I'm gone and will have plenty to say at the gravesite. I'd bet my life she'd say something along the lines of saying that I should've used those bits from the trust fund for her education to get the medical care I needed.
November 13, 2012
Today I pushed as hard as I could to send Obsidian out to be with her friends Vapor and Minty. I could sense that today was gonna be the day I die and I don't want her here to see me die.
It had been a week since she buried her father next to her mother. She had dug the grave herself and placed the coffin in the hole herself as well. Sobbing the entire time. When the local minister came to perform the funeral rites she cried. Not just for her father but also for the pony who had passed. She sensed it in her heart.

Chapter 3: Learning

Obsidian was organizing the attic, and she came across a black mirror with strange runes engraved in its frame. She stared at them for some time then she remembered where she saw them. She ran down to retrieve her father's journal and found the runes to an old spell.

It translated as:
"For the dying soul, an open portal for me to join and comfort in final hours." She went to the mirror and recited the spell, as she did so the glass shifted and she saw into the room of a young earth pony being crushed by a large tree branch and they were scared. She stepped through the glass tentatively and she soon by him. He had coughed up blood, and she lay beside him after she moved the tree off of his crushed body. He whimpered and begged, "Please don't leave me alone to die?"
"I'm not gonna leave, I'll be right here until the end." He already knew he wasn't gonna make it to a hospital but know that somepony was going to be there with him so he'd never have to die alone comforted him greatly and his breathing slowed to a normal pace. After an hour of hearing his breathing slow, and with each breath she'd hear the gurgling of blood and felt her heart ache more and more finally he died. She took him back through her portal and let the medical examiner get his DNA and waited until they could id him. Obsidian buried him several weeks later and on his grave marker she put his name "Glen".
For several weeks she would travel through her portal and comfort many ponies and she had to bury many. The bits her father saved for her education she used in Celestia's School for Gifted Unicorns. Between that and her going and comforting ponies she rarely saw her friends Vapor and Minty.

Chapter 4: A Second Chance at Life

As Obsidian finished her first semester she felt a slow pain in her chest, she traveled her portal but to no avail; then one day she was with Minty and Vapor, she noticed Vapor seemed unwell. Vapor was energetic and hyper, and also a big eater and yet somehow stayed at a healthy weight. Now Vapor seemed weary, her mane was thinning out, and she was getting thin........ unhealthily thin. As the days drew on, the pain got sharper.
It was in the middle of the night when Obsidian sat up and got out of bed and went up on her mirror an recited the spell. The portal opened in Vapor's room and she saw Vapor sitting on her bed crying; she stepped through she walked up. She saw a small foal, beside coughing and sputtering out blood; Minty was on the phone telling someone to hurry. Also in the room was a fallen book case, the scene was obvious and it was heart wrenching. She asked if she could hold the foal and she was permitted to do so.
Her horn lit up as she closed her eyes and hummed. In her father's journal it was written that even though she couldn't prevent death but her special gift had the power also to slow death down to give a pony a second chance to live. Vapor and Minty watched in awe as the blood coming from the foal's mouth slow to a stop and medical ponies ran up the stairs and rushed the foal to the ER.
After some tense hours the doctor in charge came out, "It is a miracle, we were able to stabilize the youngster, he'll be fine. The internal bleeding stopped long enough by some use of magic or something but it was enough to give him a second chance at life." As he was thanked and he walked out. The trio breathed, Vapor's parents arrived from out of town and we're relieved that their son was gonna make it.

Chapter 5: Life isn't Worth It

Obsidian was feeling easy one night and she went to her mirror and before she cast her spell she saw a pony outside her window. There wasn't anything particularly interesting about this pony save for the fact she trudged slowly and her body was loose and her head hung low. Teleporting to the street she followed closely but not too closely. They arrived at a small house outside of town and the pony went inside. "You're fucking late again Sunflower! It's five o' clock and I'm hungry! You know what you worthless piece of shit? You're nothing but a waste of life!" More hurtful things were said and a pegasus stallion stormed out of the front door and flew off into the evening sky; a beautiful sky for a potentially sad night. Obsidian walked through the door without knocking fear gripped her and just as she stepped in a sight met her eyes.
Sunflower was poised with a parring knife and Obsidian froze. "Listen Sunflower, you're not worthless! The have more worth that you'll ever know, just slide me the knife? I can help you get out of here.........." She coaxed for about an hour and was slowly making progress.
The house was a bit dinghy, the carpet was damp and smelled of mildew. The paint was in need of attention and judging from the ceiling the roof had a few leaks and mold in the rafters. To spite these flaws it showed that Sunflower was doing her best.
The stallion landed softly and bellowed, "Get the hell out of my house!" Before Obsidian could stop the knife with her magic, it was plunged deep into Sunflower's abdomen. The stallion shrugged and lit a cigarette and commented that at least his burden was gone and he walked out. Obsidian did her best to levitate the phone and tell the medics where she was while trying to slow the blood flow. When the medics arrived it was too late. The pegasus stallion had left and he wasn't to be found.
A few weeks later, felt dread in the middle of the night. She started to travel her portal to various parts of town, she came to a poorer district and she glanced around and saw a young teenaged colt or stallion she couldn't decide what term to use in her mind. He lay against a dumpster with several syringes and she guessed a drug of some kind. Using her magic she ran a diagnosis drug OD. He wasn't dead yet but close. He opened his eyes and for not being focused they showed fear. She found why her heart had ached but the only thing she could do now was comfort him as he passed. She walked up and what he said shocked her.
"You're that pony I've heard about? That one who shows up when somepony is dying............is it gonna be?" How could she answer him? She barely was able to tell him it was so. "Can you stay for a while? Or is there somepony else in the area who needs you?"
"I'm here for you" she gently stated as she lay beside him and held him close. She heard his heart rate slowing down.
"Can you sing to me please?" She nodded and sang a song that was used for funerals mostly. She hated that song, but she used it for those who wouldn't have a funeral like most ponies but were buried in no name graves.
"What is your name?"
"It's Blaze. You're Obsidian, someponies call you the 'Angel of Death' Just want to let you know I had heard how you were there for my sister a few weeks ago.........I don't know if you remember her, her name was Sunflower." She nodded, with her gift to sense one's death or being able to slow their deaths to give them a second chance at life; the curse to that gift is you'll remember those names until you died. Out of all the death she saw and the ponies she comforted the most difficult ones were the suicide or attempted suicides. She spent most of her nights crying and mourning those ponies.

Grave Side Visit

Early the next morning Obsidian visited her parent's graves. She sat silently at first quietly telling her mother how much she missed her and wished that she was still there with her.
She then turned to her father's grave and broke down in tears. Father.........I could tell something was wrong and never bothered asking what, for the last few months I sensed somepony was about to die and didn't give two bits who until one of my friends mentioned that certain telltale signs that somepony I was close to was about to die were the same signs when mother died......how they knew that I guess saw them all those years ago and remembered to this day. You're right though, I'm gonna ask, why didn't you use those bits for medical treatment? If I had known I'd get a job or two help pay for the medical treatment..........I've failed you so miserably; all I can ask for now is that can you forgive me? I don't know if that's possible in the after-life.
After a while, she went to town bought two arrangements of flowers and placed them at her parent's graves and sat silently for a bit longer, and then tended to some chores that needed to be tended to.

School

Obsidian looked at the pile of homework in front of her, she wanted to make her father proud. She was studying to be a counselor and to be a healthcare giver to work in a retirement home.
After four hours she finished her homework. She felt the chest pains again. She wandered around town until the pain kicked in n sharply to let her know she was where she needed to be. This pony to her already breaking heart was just a little colt. He couldn't be much older than six; by this time all the ponies in her village knew about her unique gift. The mother of the colt let her sit with him. The parents were also present and watched as their son's time grew closer Obsidian held tighter and humming a tune that could put any pony no matter the age to sleep.
Within a few days, Obsidian had buried the colt. Obsidian was almost about to graduate top of her class in Psychology and Medicine. She always made time to visit her parent's graves telling them of the news. Even though the writing in her father's journal was hers she'd write updates of her life in the journal from his perspective.
It was a total of four years and she finally finished school, Obsidian was a registered counselor and an RN. She was able to make photocopies of her diplomas and set the copies at her parent's graves. She worked at the local nursing home until it had to close and the occupants relocated to the far side of town into a smaller building and she was let go due to financial problems. She'd counsel ponies after they lost loved ones.

Moving Onwards

Obsidian and Zeus became close friends and he was also introduced to Obsidian's other friends after she reconnected with them. Zeus was popular with the whole lot. The crazy mares hadn't changed they still met at their favorite ice cream parlor hoping that Obsidian would join them again........and finally Obsidian accepted their invitation and came back to the land of the living. Zeus was welcomed with a massive group hug and he could barely breathe. He saw Obsidian grin and mouth, "Better get use to this, cause this is how they are".
After a few months Obsidian's friends began placing bets on if Zeus would propose to Obsidian, to the which she said if it did happen she'd say yes.
I mean after time I developed feelings for the changling whose personality was much like my Father's. He finally did ask and I was escatatic and and my friends quickly exchanged bits, Zeus and I laughed when they did because we knew they were betting on us..........Zeus exchanged bits too I looked at him incredulously.
"We bet that I wouldn't propose in year.........but it hasn't been a full year soooo I lost the bet. I told em it would be a year and half before I asked......." We both laughed. I knew he developed feelings I saw it in his actions, but I didn't want to embarrass him.
Obsidian and Zeus got married and had twins, their son they named after Obsidian's father, they named him Triton, and their daughter they named Aphrodite. They had to move to a larger cottage and somepony took over the job of digging graves.
Obsidian & Zeus took their kids to visit their grandparents' graves and telling them stories of their grandparents. Their little family had the addition of a other daughter and they named her after Obsidian's mother; they named her Jade.
They lived happily and for both of them they'd go through certain times of the year a pang of sadness but the pain never lasted. Over time they realized that their kids had combined gifts, being part changling could absorb love and senses when somepony was gonna die from Obsidian but they all shared a unique gift that neither parent had..........they could absorb your sadness and replace with happiness by supressing the sad memories and having you remember only the happy memories. They let their kids know that they had these gifts, but they were incredulous.
Jade had a unique gift that none of the others had...........she could communicate with the dead via memories. So between her and Obsidian, Obsidian was able to be at peace with her father's passing being able to know that he had her apology all those years ago.
The family grew to be a large one over the years over the span of generations an they lived happily for a good long while