‘A friend who dies, it’s something of you that dies’
Endless
Infinite
Immortal
Words. All of them. Nothing but words. Ponies had neither respect nor understanding of them. They threw them around, as if they knew, understood, were even capable of comprehending their meanings. They acted as if though they lived forever. They spoke as if no one cared.
They were wrong.
I am that which brings an end to the endless. A border to the infinite. A death to the immortal. I am the bringer of mourning and the harbinger of tears. I am nameless, but most name me as Death. I am he who will never see the Eternal Pasteur, but knows the way. I know not what lies on the other side of the darkness, but I do not care; it is not my place to care. I care for nothing but the dead.
As Celestia is to the Day and Luna to the Moon, I am to Death. I have existed since time immemorial, since before the ponies, the zebras, the griffins, even the mighty and ancient dragons. I have harvested the souls of countless dead, from war, famine, strife, old age, and all which ends lives. I have done this for eternity and will carry out my duty until the end of time. Nothing will nor can stop me. Not the Princesses. Not the Elements of Harmony. Death is final, and there is no greater finality than Death. Though there have always been those who resist. Insist otherwise. Countless ponies say that it’s not their time. But six… only six have managed to come close to making me regret taking them to the Eternal Pasteur.
But not even the magic of friendship can stave off my final embrace.
The first of them was the most rambunctious. When the Griffin Republics declared war on Equestria, she, as a Wonderbolt, served as an elite pegasus flyer. She and her recently made husband, Soarin. The two were always on a team together. They had been through thick and thin and the worst and the best. They were inseparable. No force could tear them apart.
No force, of course, but Death.
It was during the final battle of the war, the Battle for Griffonia. Dash’s team was dropping thunderclouds everywhere against enemy fortifications. Being fliers themselves, the Griffins made it hard on them. Dash and Soarin had been fighting them off when a crafty Griffin named Gilda snuck up behind Soarin. Dash flew right into her, and flew to supersonic speed, snapping the Griffin’s spine instantly. Before she died, though, Gilda landed a claw through Dash’s neck. She bled out and crashed. Soarin flew over to her, desperately trying to reawaken his fallen love. It was useless and in vain. At this point the world faded to black and she stood to see Soarin turning to face off against a group of Griffins come to finish him off.
It was a busy day for me, that day.
“Soarin! I’m here!”
“He cannot hear nor see you.”
Startled, she turned to face my unyielding gaze.
“Who… who are you?” She had asked.
“I am many, yet none. I am everywhere and nowhere, harbinger of tears and bringer of mourning. I am nameless, yet you may call me Death, for it is Death I bring, and it is Death which has come to grant you its final, cold embrace.”
“What? No! I still have to help Soarin!”
With that, she attempted to run over to her love, only to see the world fade to black all around her.
“You cannot. Your time has come and gone, Rainbow Dash.”
“Yes I can! Just let me have a few more minutes, please!”
“No.”
“Please!”
These moments were meaningless to me. Almost every young pony broke into tears when told they were bound for the Eternal Pasteur.
“My love is going to die and it’s your fault!”
“Death is blameless, for it is but death. If you seek somepony to blame, look to yourself for your end. You are the Element of Loyalty, so your loyalty ends you. What would’ve happened had you not elected to fight this war, or to protect Soarin, who undoubtedly will be my next charge in spite of your attempts to save him? You would’ve lived, pony. For years after today, you would’ve lived. But you so foolishly charged into battle for Princess and nation, and it has landed you nowhere save your grave."
“What? You think… you think I should’ve just… run? That I shouldn’t have even fought with the Bolts? That’s crazy! Either I fight or somepony else does for me, and it’s not like there are many other fliers like me out there! Running would’ve been a stupid idea!”
“Oh? Do you not wish to live? Doesn’t everypony wish to live? Being loyal to yourself would’ve bought you more life than loyalty to your nation or loved one.”
“No, running would make me a coward! I would never leave my country, friends, and loved ones to fight for themselves while I chilled out somewhere nice and safe! I’d rather know Soarin is safe and alive and die than be safe and alive and know he died for me!”
“Your idealism is admirable, but foolish. Soarin is dying anyway.”
“At least I tried!!”
“And you failed. Do not lie to Death, fool. Everypony wants to live forever. No pony wants to die.”
“Not unless we have something worth fighting for. Something worth dying for. Something you would never understand.”
“I understand fully. You ponies think yourselves so mighty, for ones speaking to Death itself. What is worth dying for? Nations fall, people die, and nothing but death is a constant!”
“No, Death. See, that’s where you’re wrong. There are a few things worth dying for. Things we’ll have even when you come for us; Things that you really can’t ever understand.”
“And those are?”
“Friendship, love, those kinds of things? Yeah, real strong stuff there, strong enough to save Princess Luna, turn Discord to stone, and shoot an entire army out of Canterlot in ten seconds flat”
I had scoffed.
“Your foolish idealism will do you no good in the grave. Go now, Rainbow Dash, Element of Loyalty; Rest in peace.”
This mantra was always what I chanted to send a pony on their way to the Eternal Pasteur. Dash’s soul faded into whiteness as she entered into the other side. I had thought of how foolish she was. Friendship and love die like ponies. Only death is infinite. Loyalties change all the time. Nothing was worth dying for. Friendship and love? Those were fleeting things that died with the ponies that possessed them.
Nothing but death is constant.
Nothing.
Next to die would be the Honest One. That is what they called her; the Honest One. One would think it was a compliment, a testament to one’s trustworthiness and reliability.
It was not.
Her death came after the Griffin War; Despite its victory, Equestria had suffered severe damage. The Equestrian economy was in recession as farmland was rendered infertile and Cloudsdale struggled to keep with weather demands. Many ponies believed that Celestia and Luna were to blame; It was, after all, the royal family’s fault that the war escalated so severely, and their policy of ‘let the wounds heal themselves’ meant that welfare was nonexistent and everypony was on their own. Many upstart ponies argued that the Princesses were letting them suffer pay cuts and layoffs at increasing intervals. They blamed the royalty for all of Equestria’s problems.
Applejack had begged to differ.
She argued that the princesses weren’t to blame; If anypony, it was the griffins. The honest mare had always asserted that the monarchs were right; Government bailouts would be detrimental more so than beneficial, that the only thing they would accomplish would be bankrupting the treasury and removing their emergency safety net. For one of such humble upbringing and slurred words, she quickly strummed up a movement of ponies that she inspired to speak out against the majority Anti-Royalists. It was ironic and humorous in my mind; the Element of Loyalty had crossed to the Eternal Pasteur, and so loyalty seemed to be of short supply. I did not think the two were connected; Rainbow Dash was a pony, nothing more, as was Applejack.
Still, that did not stop a massive surge of hatred against her for her passionate work in defending the crowns. It was when she was at her apex that ponies began calling her the Honest One, refusing to even say her name. Then one pony, a young but opinionated colt who had taken the name Gavrillo Pipsqueak, thought that the Honest One needed to be silenced, for the good of Equestria.
He struck during her latest and greatest speech, which was in Canterlot itself, with the royal family watching from their verandas. Her speech was powerful, moving, inspiring, but not enough to dissuade Pipsqueak from his work. He had maneuvered his way through the crowd, waiting for his target to reach the apex of her speech.
When she did, so too was it the apex of her life.
He had pounced on stage and used a knife he hid on his hoof to stab Applejack twenty-one times before guards arrested him. She was bleeding out on the stage as the hundreds of thousands of gathered screamed and cried in shock and awe. Pipsqueak was being escorted away and numerous unicorns had gathered to attempt healing spells before the world around us greyed out and Applejack stood up, leaving her body behind.
“Ah… ah’m alright, everypony, am’m alright! By Celestia, ah don’ know how, but ah…” She started before realizing no pony was responding.
“You most certainly are not alright, pony.” I had said, causing her to turn in surprise at my voice.
“Who… who’re you?”
“I am nameless, yet I hold more titles than anypony else. You may call me Death, for it is death come to take you to the Eternal Pasteur.”
“D-… Death? Bu-… but… I ain’t dead! At least, I ain’t done with bein’ livin’ yet!”
“Death does not care for your own agenda. You have died, and it is time to cross over to the Eternal Pasteur.”
She had stomped her hoof on the ground assertively.
“Ah don’ think so, sugarcube! I ain’ gonna let them liars fill eveypony’s ears with their… their lyin’!”
“It was that same incentive which killed you, fool.”
“Wha? Ah, this is gonna be good… go on, then, let’s hear what’cha gonna say about how me being honest got me killed.”
Sarcastic and condescending. Great.
"All you've done is speak your mind for all to hear and know. You have caused such unrest and instability that a pony was willing to end your life to silence you."
"Ah, sure, that's waht killed meh. You just listen here, sugarcube: Who else was gonna do it? Huh? No pony, that's who! It's me, or no pony! And if no pony speaks up, well, then the whole dern country's gonna just go along with whatever the hay other ponies say!"
"Is that such a bad thing?"
"Yer darn right, it is!"
"Why? Other ponies are merely telling their own version of the truth. Truth is such a relative thing, fool."
"Who you callin' a fool?!"
"You, of course! You killed yourself over politics! Politics! The most trivial thing in the universe! And You are a hypocrite; You say you're the only one who knows the truth, that your opponents are lying! Have you considered that, perhaps, they are right?"
"Ah course I have! I've weighed the options, I did te research, an' ah know fer a fact that those Anti-Royalists are flatout lying about half ah what they're sayin'!"
"Enough of this foolish exchange. Go now, Applejack, Element of Honesty. Rest in-"
"Ahhh, hay no, you don't!"
She tried running. She ran, galloped, really, as fast as she could away from me, and the surrounding world, already grey, had blacked out into oblivion. She kept trying to run, though. Run as if she were still in Equestria. Like she was in a body. Like she could escape me.
"Rest. In. Peace." I had called out. She faded into a white light, and the world returned to normal, though of course, no pony could see me.
I mulled over the words of the orange-coated farmhand-turned-activist as I went to my next charge. Truth was relative, always. Opinions will always stain the so-called 'truth'. There is only one truth:
Death.
...But is that not an opinion?
