See You on the Other Side

See You on the Other Side Part II

Rainbow Dash awoke. She opened her eyes, but all hopes of seeing were lost, as wherever she was, there was no light. Had it all just been a crazy dream and she just awoke at night? Or is the reality much more grim?

The pegasus stood up and walked a few feet, the ground was rough, dry, and rocky; this was not Cloudsdale. The air was stale, and made Rainbow Dash feel alone; for the first time ever, Rainbow Dash had no pony to turn to. Dash felt sick, she wanted to go back to Ponyville and see all of her friends, the way things used to be; now, she had no option but to carry on alone.

Rainbow dash had walked for miles, the rough ground began to bother her feet; she did not want to keep walking. Dash sat down for a long time when suddenly, off in the distance she saw a white light; finally the pegasus had a lapse of hope in this sad, dark universe that she had been banished to.

Dash followed the light for what felt like an eternity, and would be relieved by the source of the light. The light came from none other than Rarity, who was quite the sight for sore eyes; she stood there smiling, she looked very glad to see her friend. Rarity appeared completely unaffected by the other world, she had no blood on her; everything was as it was before the rainbow fell. “I am so glad to see you, Rainbow Dash. I don’t know where we are, but I do not want to stay here; we have to find a way out of here.” Rarity continued, “You are the only other one who died, right?” Rainbow Dash started to sob, she could barely make out the words, “We all died.” Rarity’s smile died, she did not cry, but her joy for seeing Rainbow Dash was killed by the bad news. Rainbow Dash refused to go into details about the gruesome deaths of her friends. Instead, the two ponies began the search for their friends.

The light emitted from Rarity’s coat served as a great light along the way, and cleared up a lot of questions about the terrain for Rainbow Dash. As they walked, Dash realized that the ground had several marks of dried blood, giving the ground the rough texture; the ‘rocky’ feeling on the ground was actually teeth, this gave Rainbow Dash chills. The universe in which the two ponies now resided appeared to have no end to the sky, no ceiling, but no other celestial bodies in space; wherever they were, that was all that existed in this universe. After a short period of time, the two ponies happened upon a small box. The box was made of mahogany, with 4 carved feet on the base; the wood was highly polished and, upon opening it, was found to be lined with purple silk. Inside the box lay a purple horn, which made Rainbow Dash want to vomit; she did so away from the box, then closed it and took it along with them.

As the ponies began to continue walking it began to rain, Rainbow Dash felt relieved by the rain at first, but after a while the rain began acting very strangely; the rain began instantly freezing on the ground, forming sharp spikes of ice on the ground, which made their hooves bleed with every excruciating step. After a long while the rain stopped, and their hooves left blood prints on the ground; only forcing Rainbow Dash to focus on other things, one of which was a small patch of yellow on the ground.

Rainbow Dash ran towards it, Rarity following her. The two discovered that what they found was a disembodied cutie mark. Yellow skin, with 3 butterflies was what it was; Rarity broke down in tears. Rarity stepped closer to it, when a series of large, scarred, black hands emerged from the ground and wrapped themselves around the white unicorn; they brought her with them as they went back to where they came, her body followed, and the ground made no attempt to stop her.

Rainbow Dash could not be affected by the event; she had seen too much at this point to be shocked or saddened by the event, only seeking to escape the afterlife. The pegasus took notice of a light in the world, which seemingly had no source, but only existed as its own entity. This light pointed out a box of matches and a bone next to the cutie mark; only having one label on the box “to light the way, you require a torch.” Rainbow Dash was sickened by the idea, but had no choice if she truly desired escaping. Dash wrapped the cutie mark around the bone and lit it on fire; the cutie mark burned very well, but Dash had just eliminated the one thing that set Fluttershy apart from every other pony; Dash had just deponyized the one pony who truly did not deserve it.

The torch served to light the way for exactly as long as it needed to; Rainbow dash discovered a large black building, with no windows, and only one door. Just as rainbow Dash reached the large metal door, Fluttershy’s cutie mark burned out; clearly it was fate for the pegasus to be here. The door was composed of a very strong metal, Rainbow Dash tapped it with her hoof; it felt like titanium. The door had no knob or any other means of gaining entry, the hinges were on the inside; all that was to be found was a metal plate on the ground, Rainbow Dash stepped on it. The door stood its ground for a long time, until some pony opened it. The creature to be found here was tall, roughly 9 feet in height; the creature was skinny and had shackles around its wrists and ankles. The creature had 8 eyes glowing red, and a single bloody horn that emerged from the back of its head; the creature had a mouth filled with teeth sharp enough to cut clean through bone, the nose had a sharp point to it, and the creature had no ears. The creature had long arms covered with veins, and the same could be said about the legs; the creature, who was answering the door, was clearly in a position of power, but the shackles indicated that even this one was a prisoner in this universe.

The creature held a beat up metal lantern, and held his arm out inside the prison, as if to indicate that Rainbow Dash must enter. Rainbow Dash followed the creature down the hall for what felt like days, until eventually the creature stopped in front of a cell and opened it, motioning for the pegasus to enter the cell; Rainbow Dash complied. As soon as Dash was fully inside the cell, the door slammed shut; the tall creature said nothing, but turned back and walked back down the dark hallway, until Dash could no longer see him.

Rainbow Dash looked back in the box and closed it, no longer wanting to remember what lay inside. Dash turned to see the inside of the cell. The floor was wet, and the air had a moldy stench to it; the ceiling dripped water every now and then, and the bars of the cell were cold and rough. On the back wall of the cell was a message that read “your purple friend cannot escape without that, can she?” Rainbow Dash then recalled the fact that she was unable to find any of her friends when she had arrived, and inferred that they all must have arrived in the prison as well. Rainbow Dash looked as far down the hall as she could, and her eyes fell upon a cell containing a purple pony sleeping on the floor.

Rainbow Dash decided not to try to call out to Twilight, as it might alert some sort of a guard in the prison; Rainbow Dash decided to recall her skill in horseshoes instead, and threw the horn at her friend. The horn hit Twilight right in the back, which awoke the sleeping unicorn; she put her horn back where it used to be and it mended itself magically. Twilight looked at Dash and spoke no words, but only nodded; she then made herself a portal to walk straight through the bars, and did the same for Rainbow Dash.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash silently devised a plan for if they hear guards coming, to get out of sight quickly; the two silently walked down the hallway, searching for their friends. On their way they happened upon Applejack, who was in tears at the idea that her family would betray her, Fluttershy, who was missing her cutie mark and had long since fallen asleep, and Pinkie Pie, who was sitting in silence, wishing she was back at Sugarcube Corner.

The ponies continued to the end of the hall but found no signs of Rarity, Dash recalled that on her way down the hall with the creature she did not see rarity anywhere. At the end of the hall, the ponies discovered a large room, the ceiling was not detectable from the ground; there were several large pits of lava in the room with ponies hogtied to ropes hanging above the pits, some begged to not be dipped again, others had been burned down to the muscle and were unable to speak. Some ponies were laid down on tables with ropes tied to all four limbs, the other ends of the ropes were attached to large wheels which more ponies were forced to turn, being whipped while they worked. Creatures similar to the one at the door were whipping the ponies working, and dropping the other ponies into the lava; some of the creatures were being tortured themselves, it appeared that there was no ring leader; it was a land that existed solely for suffering.

Rainbow Dash looked about the room and saw that Rarity was hanging from one of the ropes, and had already been burned pretty badly; the ponies huddled and devised a plan to help Rarity escape. Fluttershy stood behind the creature and began to sing; the creature got drowsy and eventually fell asleep into the lava. Once the creature was taken care of, Twilight untied Rarity and floated her to safety. Rarity was shaking from the pain of being burned, but was willing to carry on.

At the back of the room there was a large, horrific throne, upon which sat he whom the ponies assumed was the great Satan himself. The ponies, now reunited, approached the being who, now up close, appeared much more ominous. The entity had broad shoulders, was slightly taller than the other creatures, and had two large horns which curved upwards and had several blood stains on them; he also had long, well-toned arms and long nails on his fingers. Satan also carried a large sword on his belt which, every pony assumed, was also covered in blood.

Rainbow Dash bravely approached Satan, and before she could even speak, Satan told her to get out of his sight. Rainbow Dash ignored this and said in her most brave of tones, “Sir, My friends and I are all here by a crazy mistake, we would really appreciate it if you could send us back to Equestria.” Satan laughed at the pegasus’ request, and only said back “no pony is seen entering my domain, and no pony leaves.” The ponies all understood what the lord of darkness had stated, and left his presence.

The ponies did not know where to go, so they snuck through the cells and out the big metal door, no pony wanted to stay in the prison, and with Rarity now they could see. The ponies began to walk in a random direction, only following where their will chose to take them.

For years the ponies wandered these forsaken wastes, with nowhere to stand, and nowhere to stay. But on one night, or perhaps day it may have been, they happened upon the same creature which had fallen into the lava on the day when Rarity was freed from the rope. The creature looked exceptionally angry, and with one huge feat of strength, lifted up all six ponies at once and launched them into a deep pit. On the way down the pit, Twilight’s horn was broken off, and once again she was powerless. Each pony landed on a pike, unable to free themselves, and unable to escape through death, for they were already dead. For all of eternity these ponies remained, impaled shells of what they once were. The ingenious Twilight, the green-hoofed Applejack, and the speed demon Rainbow Dash; the cheerful Pinkie Pie, the generous Rarity, and the kind-hearted Fluttershy, each one was forgotten by time. But what happened in Equestria after these six were gone, that is a story yet to be told

To Be Continued