Void.
Was this what death was like?
Everything was black. All I knew was black. I couldn't feel my limbs, my face, my horn. I couldn't even feel my lungs. Was I even breathing? The nothingness was accented only by little specs of white. Like distant voices I could hear the voices singing songs. It was beautiful, yet terrifying. Adrift, I still felt the numb bliss invoked by the nightkiss. There was a chill in my mind, like I could sense the drug flooding my system. Still, everything remained out of my reach.
I heard the shuffle of cards.
"That was quick," I felt myself say. I knew it was my mind speaking, yet I still felt disconnected, like parts of my brain were not working. "I just saw you."
The old stallion grunted. The Dealer appeared in front of me. A card table set. Without speaking, he shuffled the cards expertly, not taking his cruel, red eyes off me. The cards slid into one another perfectly. The Dealer needed to show me that sometime. If I was dead, and this was how I would spend eternity. I had plenty of time to learn a few card tricks.
The shuffled deck slammed into the table as he pounded it hard. I knew what he wanted, and I split the deck through the top card only. He accepted this and began to deal, two for him and two for me. Three were dealt into the center: five of clubs, queen of spades, and three of diamonds.
I picked my cards up. I had an eight of hearts and a two of spades. Unfortunately, this wasn't a good hoof. I bet low.
The Dealer met my bet and dealt the next card, a seven of hearts.
I looked at that bony old stallion. I could see his scowl without needing to see his face. My best chance at winning right now was that queen. This game was over before it started. With my poor luck, I folded my cards. I lost, just like I had lost everything else.
The Dealer threw a few more chips in and threw the final card in, an eight of clubs. Had I not folded, I'd have had one pair. The Dealer showed his cards, an ace of hearts and a four of diamonds. I would have won had I not folded.
"You folded too early," he said. "That's how you lose."
"I folded because I had a bad hoof, next game I might have a better one," I said.
"There is no next game," said The Dealer. "When you forfeit like that, the only pony who is screwing you over is yourself."
"The possibility of you throwing down an eight or a two were incredibly unlikely!" I yelled at him. "I'm dead, and you still yell at me about how I'm playing your game wrong!"
"I thought you understood more than anypony..." The Dealer grunted in reply.
"Understood what?" I asked. "All I need to understand is that I lost. I tried to match the Overmare, and I fell short. Was it really that much of a surprise?"
"I thought you understood chance," the Dealer answered. "What were the chances that you escaped your cell? Do you think they were any more than me laying a two?"
"I think I escaped because I was crafty. All I had time to do was sit on my flank and think of a way out," I answered.
"You escaped because the cards fell just right enough to allow you to take advantage of them," The Dealer explained.
I was silent. Lens Cap could have given me away. Rose could have given me away. Most of the spells I used then I had only tested once or twice. One of them might have faltered.
"Now," The Dealer continued. "You've given in to the idea that you might lose. Even in our little game, you can fake out the opponent at the last moment of the game. Seconds matter."
"So what should I do?" I asked. "Is there anything I can do?"
"Not if you keep telling yourself that you've failed, lost, died, and gone to the everafter," The Dealer said. "Once you've reserved yourself to that fate, you fold your cards and might as well get up and trot away. Your game is over."
"Then what do I do? You just show up and tell me things, but you never tell me what you want me to do!" I cried.
"Keep playing. Even now, don't give in. There's always the possibility that something may happen. Your opponent may fold. The next card may be your key to winning. Even if you have bad cards, your chances at winning are the same as everypony else."
I sighed.
"Okay, I hope. I have faith that something will happen to turn the tide in my favor. I keep fighting. Then what?" I pleaded. I was at a loss. I couldn't understand what was being said. This kind of stuff was for the mares to handle. I'm just a stallion.
"The next card gets put down," The Dealer concluded.
"What?" I asked.
"It seems there's somepony who wants to see you. Somepony important," The Dealer said, dismissing our earlier conversation. I still missed his meaning. He disappeared and his cloud faded.
I was once again left alone. My mind once again disconnected from everything else and I was drifting again. One of the specs of light grew closer. Gradually, at first, it sped up the closer it got. Right as it was on top of me, it disappeared. It became the same blackness that engulfed everything else here.
I heard a grunt, as if large metal machines had awoken from an ancient slumber. I heard metal cry out, as something else metal ground itself against it. The lock groaned as it was rotated. It finished with a click that sounded more like a roar.
In front of me, the shape of a gear formed against the ever-present darkness. A blinding light shone from around the edges, keeping the number hidden, as the shape was silhouetted out of the space behind it. The stable door rolled to the left, revealing more of the blinding white light behind it. I covered my eyes with my hooves, half out of fear of not being able to see again. The door finished its song with a crash, and the machines finished their chorus.
In the light, I saw thousands of ponies, lined up as if to be presented to a judge. Standing in the maw of the great door was a pony wearing a familiar jumpsuit. He seemed younger than in the pictures I had seen of him. Behind him, his predecessors stood, pitying his situation, yet admiring his sacrifice. Behind them still, was a large herd of ponies. I saw mares, but almost all were stallions. Some wore the stallion-cut Stable-Tech jumpsuit, others wore nothing at all.
I faced the crowd of ponies. They looked at me in awe. Not like a child seeing a caged animal at the zoo, more like a soldier kneeling before a wounded veteran. They regarded me a hero. Even Harvest himself gave me a gentle smile. I saw the compassion, even after all these years, that he felt for the ponies in the stable.
"Hello there," he said. "I'd introduce myself, but I think we've already been acquainted."
I just stared, agape.
"I've been looking forward to this conversation for a long time," Harvest said, once I didn't respond.
I shook my head to clear my thoughts. "Er, y-yes," I stammered. "I mean, what?"
"It is a pleasure," Harvest said, as he held out his hoof. I reached mine out as well, and we shook.
"It is," I replied, still surprised at what was before me.
"I'm sure you must have many questions," he stated.
"Yes, yes I do," I replied.
"Well now, I suppose, is as good a time as any to ask," he said with a smile. "It's been such a long time since I've been able to have a full conversation with a pony."
"How are we- I mean, who are- How are we here? How can I be actually talking to you? I must be dead!" I exclaimed.
"Hmm, well you see, that can be a little difficult to explain. Have you ever heard of necromancy?" Harvest asked.
"No," I replied.
"Well, its soul magic. Souls have certain properties that are beyond the physical. It is some of these properties that have to do with why we are still here," he explained.
"So am I dead?" I asked.
"Yes, but no." Harvest answered. "Your heart is not beating, yet your consciousness lives on. It takes a special kind of pony to do something like that. I guess you lived up to your promise to Rose. As long as your heart was beating, you resisted the Overmare."
I took another look around at all of the ponies in the stable's grand entryway. They were all still pleased, encouraging me onward.
"Who are all of these? They don't look like the other stable ponies," I asked.
"These," Harvest said as he gestured to the crowd. "These are the ponies that have fallen victim to the Overmare. They cannot speak to you in the same way that I can because they have already passed on. Yet, they watch over the stable. They sing a new song now, but are still aware of what is happening down below."
"These are all..." I looked around again. I saw them in the corner, the ponies that the Overmare had turned into ash. Dozens of stallions looked up at me. Their expressions shared one thought. They regretted returning to the cells. It was clear in their eyes that if given another chance, they would join me and see their freedom. I understood that they had been scared. I understood that life had been simple in the cells. It made sense, and they wanted to return to it.
I saw stallions who had fallen in combat against the Overmare. I saw the look of despair in their eyes that they would never be able to see the world that they had been fighting to create. I felt responsible.
I saw the stallions from before my little rebellion. Everypony that had fallen prey to the Overmare's deadly nightkiss. I saw mares that had gone against the Overmare. Some had outright rebelled, as I had. Others had simply spoken out. The Overmare had a knack for making those ponies disappear. Some were just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Some still had hidden stallions from returning to the cells after their final service.
I wanted to cry at the sight, but I restrained myself.
"How is it then that you can talk to me?" I asked, turning back to him. "Are you a ghost?"
He sighed. "More or less, yes. In the final day of stable 28, I opened the door and allowed the stallions to escape into the wasteland on the other side. We were several ponies short. I couldn't leave while there were still stallions inside! How could I? I escaped and prospered while those who trusted me to lead them suffered? I couldn't take it. I decided I wouldn't leave while there were still ponies being subjugated by mommy's little princess of an overmare. When I died, it was no different. I wanted to help anypony that managed to escape her.
"You weren't the first stallion to escape. But even after I had died, I found the Overmare one step ahead. All of my secret passages were being discovered. I could no longer guide escaped stallions out of the stable. I got used to the inactivity and became just another wandering spirit, lost in the wasteland. There are quite a lot of ponies like that, some are still in physical form, ghoulish creatures, twisted and deformed. There are many ghosts in the wasteland. You just have to know how to find them. Not every ghost is a spirit."
"Was that when I found you in the stable?" I asked.
He chuckled, "Yes. I was watching you from the moment you crawled through the vent. I didn't think you would stay long. The mares never did. I thought you would just go back soon. When you activated a terminal and started exploring, I knew that somehow you had alluded the Overmare. It had been so long that I had stopped looking for stallions to help. When you came I remembered that I wanted to help the stallions, but couldn't quite remember how. When you showed now signs of leaving-"
"You chased me out," I finished for him.
"Yes. I chased you out because I didn't want you to get caught. I wanted you to return to your cell and not get in trouble. I was trying to help, but not in the right way. That was when I discovered where you were living. You had made a home out of my tomb."
"Hehe, sorry about that."
"No! That's what I built it for! When I saw what was going on, I realized that it was time! It was time justice was served to the Overmare. I knew that you were the pony to do it. That's why I gave you my gun. I knew that you would use it to free the stallions. I am not disappointed with the results."
"But I've killed so many ponies! Innocent ponies who didn't deserve to die!" I protested.
"And each one is regrettable a thousand times over. I won't go if there are still ponies that I was responsible for being held captive by the Overmare. I know you won't either. It's been hard, going about this stable, knowing that every moment is my fault... thinking to myself, 'If only I had just done a little better.' If only... If only."
"I'm doing what I can," I told harvest.
"I know. And I'm proud. You need to keep it up. Know that I'm here. You have the support of an entire nation's worth of ponies," Harvest said, encouragingly. The vision began to fade.
"I will! I'll see this through! And I'll see that you have your revenge!" I cried as the last images faded. They washed away like water, and that little white light never reappeared. Now that I noticed that, none of the others reappeared.
I felt my hooves again. My lungs filled with cool air. Through the blackness that was this world, I felt something in my chest. The first a powerful thudding suddenly started. I had told Rose that I would resist the Overmare as long as my heart was beating. When I failed myself to resist her, my heart had stopped. Now it was beating again, beating to the rhythm of freedom.
Okay, so our hero is back. Gave ya'll a little scare with the previous chapter there, didn't I? Well it's not over yet. We'll see where this goes.
For those of you who like this story and would like more, donnieth65 has started writing a story about ol' Orange from earlier on. Remember him? His story is called The Rebel Heart Incident: A Road Less Traveled. Ya'll should check it out. Show it some love XD.
Thank you all so much for reading. If you want to, you can leave a review with your thoughts and the next chapter should be out soon.
Brohoof /)