Meeting With An Endless
After being startled by the mysterious voice, the prince kept looking around his surroundings in search of its origins, yet there was no sign of anyone being there. Not only that, but the walls kept moving away from him until they were being consumed by the darkness, leaving him in a football stadium sized room with Luna and the golem, as the voice kept giggling.
"Well I have to say, this is the first time a soul has shown concern for what happened to the previous user of their new body. Consider me impressed, and that is something harder to achieve than you think!" The voice was heard again, this time coming from behind the prince, yet when he turned around he didn't find anyone there.
"Show yourself!" The prince screamed at the strange voice on the wind in anger.
"...Oh no, you have to guest who am I fiiiiiirst." The voice teased, echoing everywhere.
"What?" Blueblood was more than confused by the voice's response, yet now that he could hear it again something about it seemed familiar.
"Come on, it will be fun! I don't usually have this kind of gathering, so I want to enjoy the occasion." The voice said in a playful matter. "Now think hard. You drank a potion designed to move spirits, so who is in charge of moving them in the first place?"
Blueblood stops and thinks hard about the voice specifically, as he could start to see a silhouette hiding on the dark. Squinting his eyes, he tried to focus better until he saw a hooded figure with a bumbling mane style "Pinkie…Pie?"
The voice just starts laughing and shakes her head as it stepped out of the shadows so he could see her more clearly. "No silly, guess again, think carefully. Here's a clue, I'm the mare that always arrives for the after party." The figure told him. Once exposed, he could see a mare that looks and sound just like Pinkie Pie, but with fur as white as a ghost and mane as black as the darkness around her. She was wearing a black sports hoodie, and there were three chibi skulls for a cutie mark instead of the usual balloons.
"Wait a minute…are you…Lady Death?"
"That's it!" The mare rushed to him immediately revealing her face, which looked just like Pinkie, with the exception that the iris' of her eyes were reversed, and she had a black skull painted on her face making her look like she just arrived from a Day of the Dead party. "But you can just call me Death, or just D if you want, no need for you to be so formal about it," She told before laughing "Oh this was fun, right?"
"Wait, if you are Death, then does that means that I…?" The prince points at himself with fear, catching Death attention.
"What? Oh no, no, no, no, prince, do not worry, it's not that, I'm not here to pick you up." She said, shaking her hooves and head rapidly in fear before relaxing. "There is a lot more party for you before I take you to the after party," She said with a grin, then lightly bumped his side. "But I can tell you this, a lot of mares want to meet you there, now that you are a changed prince, eh? You stud, you." She mentions, wiggling her eyebrows.
"Now then for a explanation, this is not even the soul realm, it's kind of like a neutral area where souls and living beings can chat. A lot of necromancers used it when they liked to talk with their dead relatives." Death explained with a smile before becoming more serious. "But that, as well as your time of death, can wait. Right now, we need to talk." She then puts her hoof on his mouth.
"And before you ask yes, I know that I don't look like the idea you have when it comes to Death or the 'Grim Reaper,'" She said, making air quotes with her other hoof, "As he likes to call himself, but please don't pair me with that grumpy old sack of bones, okay?" She grumbled in frustration, and removed her hoof.
"Wait, he and you are different deaths?"
"That's right!" She said with a smile.
"There are more than one?"
"Well duh," She said, lightly hitting her face, "Infinite universes, infinite iterations, infinite worlds. Of course there's more than one Death. Just one trying to manage all the world's souls would be just murder, no pun intended." She said with a giggle.
"But yeah, in your world Mr.'I'm too stiff and grumpy to let other spirits have their fun' is in charge of the souls that arrive. While in here I'm the soul of the party." She told him literally glowing like a light bulb for a brief moment. "In fact, I might have been the reason that expression exists in the first place."
"I have…so many questions." Blueblood said, utterly perplexed on how she acts and moves, which only made her giggle more.
"Oh they all do at first when they see me, but to help you a little, just think of it like this. Dying is nothing more than the end of suffering, of limitation…and of course of mortality."
The prince noticed that they are now in a cloud.
"Wait, how do we end up here?"
"...Erm, end of logic is included too." Death said with some embarrassment as they are back in the hospital room.
"But most importantly, it marks the end of pain, and I'm just the mare that guides their souls to the best party they ever have had before moving onto their next adventure. The fact that you are dead doesn't mean that you don't need to stop having fun, right?"
"But what about the loved ones that you leave behind?"
Death turns to mist and appears to the left of the prince. "Why do you think ghosts exist in the first place? The reason ponies are scared of them is because of trolls that took a prank way too far." She said in irritation. "Often times they just want to come for a quick visit, and plus they save a seat for them when I arrive so they can have a chat with then and have even more family members that have passed while they're waiting."
"And those that like to fight?"
"Ever heard of Valhalla?"
"What about the vengeful ones? Or the ones that have some unfinished business?"
"We all pack our things at different pace Blueblood. I'm a mare that likes things to be fair, so if someone was mean to you while living I say, they deserve one little scare here and there. After that, we're good to go."
"Okay, what about the wicked ones or those that were just downright evil while living?"
"Oh I don't deal with those," She said with a dismissive hoof wave. "But yeah, Tartarus is for them. So, you see? Contrary to what Grimmy said, death is not all about sorrow and sadness, it's moving on to the next stage in your existance. And I can tell you, the book of everyone is bigger than Agatha Christie's Miss Marple stories. So before turning the page, why not celebrate that you're ready to do so?"
"Let me guess, you're in charge of the party?"
"Not even close! I'm the DJ. Here, take one of my cards." She said making an exaggerated bow and passed him a presentation card that read;
Death, Big D., Collector of Souls extraordinaire,
Eight-time chess world champion,
DJ
"What's this about chess?" he asked.
"People kept challenging me to save their soul. After a few hundred-thousand games I got really good and went on tour."
The prince once more had a hard time processing everything. Finally he just shook his head.
"What do they pay you?" He asks with a raised eyebrow.
Death just looked at him surprise before bursting into laughter, falling onto the ground with tears on her eyes. "Pay me? Oh, that's a good one! Oh Blueblood, you really got me there." She giggled, standing up and wiping away her tears. "I knew I made the right choice giving you this body."
The prince's eyes widened and he quickly grabbed hold of Death's shoulders. "Wait, you're the reason I ended up as a pony in Equestria?"
"Well duh, the mover of spirits, remember?" She said with a roll of her eyes. "Besides you had an unfinished business to deal with. 'Start again' right? That means reincarnation."
"But, the prince, the original prince…." he asked in worry.
"That brat? His life ended way before you took over," She said, playing with her mane as her body phased through his hooves like a ghost for a few moments.
"He what?!" The prince screamed at her ear, making her flinch in pain and, for a brief second, transform into mist again before returning to normal.
"Ouch, please prince. I'm dead, not deaf," Death said, cleaning one of her ears.
"Sorry, but I…why? How did this happen?" He asked in surprise.
Looking at his face, Death glanced at him in confusion before finally grinning, slowly approaching him. "Would you like to see what happened?"
Blueblood was too in shock to notice her strange behavior, so he just nodded. "Yes, please show me."
"Great, then eat this mint and close your eyes." She proclaimed, taking a box of tic tacs from her mane and lifting one of his hooves, giving him a pill. The action manages to calm him down a bit as Blueblood looks at the candy. "Are you serious?"
"Don't think, just do. Time may not flow the same way in here as it does in the waking world but it's not infinite and our time is almost up!" She exclaimed.
The prince getting scared, nodded before eating the mint and closing his eyes.
"Good, now keep them closed until I tell you to open them." Death said, and the prince hears things rumbling near him, and how Death seemed to smack her lips together a couple of times.
"Ah Death, what is happening?"
"Trust me, I know what I'm doing. No peeking." She joked.
With a mental roll of his eyes, the prince just decided to let her do whatever she needed to do, waiting patiently to see what Death had in store.
"Okay, you ready?"
"Ready."
"In that case, open them…NOW!" She screams, and the moment the prince opened his eyes Death planted a kiss right onto his mouth that caught him off guard, leaving him breathless immediately. Not only that, but the moment their lips connected, everything around the two moved at light speed until they found themselves in some kind of vortex made of light, only stopping once Death had ended the kiss.
Gasping for air, the prince backed away and held his chest in surprise, looking at her in shock. "What the hell…was that?"
"A kiss at the speed of light, one that moves you through time and space!" She said in pride before looking behind her. "I challenge any of you top that." She proclaims with a raised eyebrow.
"Ah, who are you talking to?" The prince asked, confused by her action.
"Doesn't matter." She quickly said, looking at him with a smile. "Anyway, here we are." She announced and it was now that the prince saw that both of them were transparent and floating in some kind of swamp. For how dark the water looked made out of petroleum, and there didn't seem to be a day or a night, just utter and pure darkness around them.
Trees were rising from the water, the tops impossible to see as they were swallowed into the void. Light blue luminous figures were wandering around the place, almost all of them converging on the same point in the distance. A kind of pyramid where a white spotlight at the top was illuminating the entire scene.
"And what, or rather where exactly are we now?" The prince asked, looking around.
"From Equestria's perspective, we call it 'the Soul Road' or 'The Void Lake'. From your world it has other names: Hellhight, The Styx River, Purgatory, and others. I just call it the dark swamp for obvious reasons." She explained calmly. "No matter the universe, species or world when someone dies, they always end up here." She then point at the light in the pyramid "You recognized it?"
"That is the famous light?"
"Oh you bet, the legendary light at the end of the tunnel, that beacon you to follow that takes you to me. You see, the experience of dying could be described as diving into an endless ocean where there is no light, everything is just darkness as your soul does the swimming for you. Once you pass the line of no return, this is your next destination as well as your first obstacle."
"Obstacle?" The prince looked back at her confused, and she nodded and pointed to a particular soul that emerged from the water. "The moment a soul comes here, there are only three options of what they can do: Stand up and start walking toward the light, just like a moth to the flame." The soul illustrates this by admiring the light and just going toward it. "Which is more than common, the light itself is particularly alluring."
Death then sighs in sadness and point at another soul that was just lying limp in the water. "Then there are those that die in sorrow and misery, and decide to abandon hope for what lies beyond…" To the prince's surprise, the soul stops shining and, from its chest, a dead tree rises and start growing at a slow and steady pace. "…and transform into something else."
"So these trees are…?"
"Yep, souls that refused to walk or just decided to let this be their final resting place. Not even I know what to make out of them. They are not alive, yet I don't think they can be considered dead either. All of these trees just keep growing after all." Death mentions looking around them with some intrigue.
The prince does the same, but mostly looked at the souls who fade away the moment they approach the light. "And what is the third option?"
"The wandering soul." She mentions before pointing at a soul that screams in rage before starting to dig in the water, its light turning from blue to red. "Be it revenge, unfinished business, or the desire to keep living, if you want to go back to your world, and your will is strong enough, you will go back." She mentions, as the soul dove into the water and disappeared. "Even if it looks like it, this swamp doesn't actually have a bottom. You can only walk here because you accepted your own death."
"I see," The prince tells before sighing "Death, this is interesting and everything but why are you showing me this? What does any of this have to do with what happened to the other Blueblood?"
"Watch and see, this place exists outside of reality and time itself, and one of the advantages of being me is that I can show you this." She said before prancing in the air, Death descending until she sat next to a soul kneeling in the water in sorrow. A particular soul that even being a shiny silhouette, somehow was recognized by the prince immediately as his eyes widened in complete shock.
"Your highness, meet your soul."
"But this is…how?" He said, pointing at it and then at himself. "I still have my soul with me, right?"
"Yep"
"But, how can I even recognize it?"
"It's like the effect of a mirror, they can easily trick you with a special one but you just accept your reflection. The same happens with souls. You just know, as for what you are seeing right now, remember what I say? Outside time, meaning…." Death made a circular motion with her hoof, encouraging him to finish the sentence.
"That you didn't just bring me here, you took me to the moment after I died," He said slowly, realizing what was happening.
"That's right!" She cheers in genuine happiness "Wow, two for two, prince. You are on fire, but not as much as your predecessor is going to be soon enough." She said with a giggle.
"What do you mean?"
"Watch and see." She turns to mist and then appears next to him as they see how the human soul soon takes notices of the light that catches his attention and is mesmerized by it. Like the other, he too is about to stand up and go after it when another soul, an equine one, just shoves him to the side and runs toward it.
"Out of my way peasant!" Immediately the human prince recognized his own voice coming from the pony that just pushed him down. "And there goes old Blueblood."
"If he's a soul now, how was he still be able to talk?"
"Souls are like a copy of yourself, prince. If you really love something with passion it will linger. And that old version of you really loved to hear his own voice so…"
"Oh," The prince nodded in understanding as the pony kept running like a madman. Probably not even knowing what was happening. "I don't know what that thing is, but its mine! You hear me? Mine! Such precious light can only belong to those of royalty, peasants have no need for such beauty, I'm the only one that can admire it, so it must be mine."
The moment he gets too close to the pyramid the pony soul simply combusted into a golden fire before being swallowed by the lake, which scared both the soul and transparent prince.
"Did he just…"
"Spontaneously burst into flames? Oh yeah." Death answered him.
"So that is what you meant when you said that you don't deal with the wicked ones?"
"Exactly. This place knows very well who is tainted and who isn't, and ooooh boy that prince was just downright evil. So, I say it was just a matter of time before a pony just ends his life, and afterwards its Tartarus for him, where it's no longer my problem." Death mentions, waving at the old prince. "Bye, mean and obnoxious version of Prince Blueblood". She then looks back at the human soul. "And hi to the new and better prince."
She waves at him as the soul starts to back away in fear before turning around and running in the opposite direction.
"What is he doing?" The prince asked in fear.
"You mean what are YOU doing? I would say running away from the deadly light after witnessing how it incinerated someone the moment it got close enough." Death said chewing an apple. The prince looked at her in both surprise and confusion with how relaxed she was while talking. She just raises an eyebrow and offers the fruit "Want a bite?"
Blueblood shakes his head before looking back the soul in surprise and then anger. "You mean to tell me that because of that prince I became a wandering soul?"
Death throws the fruit away, which just disappears like a mirage as they follow the human soul. "That sums it up, but this time you can't be all that mad at him. It's just like you, old Blueblood didn't know he was dead. He couldn't know that he condemned a soul, he was just greedy."
They both sense a tremor and when they look back from the light a gigantic skeleton hand emerges and start to approach the human's soul. The prince falls on his butt from the fear as Death just roll her eyes in annoyance. "And there goes Grimmy being dramatic, and stiff again."
"What…what is he going to do to me?"
"What we're about to do." Death points behind her, and he saw how a portal appeared in front of the human soul, her own version just beaconing the human to step in. Fearing for the approaching hand, the human just complies and step inside before the hand reaches it and Death just shows her tongue at the hand before waving at her transparent self, and then just disappeared in a poof of smoke. The skeleton makes his hand into a fist and shakes it in anger before retracting back into the light.
"To answer, why did you specifically end up as Blueblood? It was because both Princess Luna and Princess Celestia made a wish for a new start. They wanted to have a nice and kind nephew, and when ponies who are pretty close to being gods made a wish, the magic behind it can be pretty powerful." Death said with a smile as she helps him stand up, and they soon go back to the hospital room with a burst of smoke.
"The energy behind it was already targeting your predecessor when he died, it might have brought him back. Instead, it found you and, when I saw how your life was, I said to myself..."
She split in two and literally began to talk with herself. "We should do something."
"Oh I know, let's take him with us and make the royals wish come true with him!" The other Death offered.
"Wouldn't that piss off the grim reaper of his world?"
"You bet it will."
And then the two start to laugh as they merge into one once more. "Oh, if only I could have seen the face of Grimmy when I took you outside of his territory. That would have been perfect."
The prince just approached Luna in shame. "All this time, the fear and wariness that I was having. It was just for nothing" He said, lightly nuzzling her side. "And I just keep hurting those that just wanted to help me."
"Hey, don't feel too bad." Death approaches and grabbed his shoulder. "You were just a very nice person, too nice for your own good in fact."
"What?"
Death appeared in front of him. "All your life you just keep putting the needs of everyone before yourself. That's why your father had you under his thumb. You had been a doormat all your life." She mentioned in disappointment. "And being unable to accept this gift has not only hurt me, it has hurt them, too," She tells pointing at Luna.
"I'm really sorry Death, I didn't mean to."
"You want to make things right? Then just, for the love of the stars, stop apologizing so much and just live like you want!" She exclaimed with exasperation. "Life is a party and you are just sulking in the corner. Come on, smile a little and don't be afraid to have fun, let Equestria know who Blueblood really is." She mentions as his body started to fade away.
The prince thinks over her words and nodded with a smile. "I will Death, I swear that I won't be a doormat anymore, this time I'm going to live life just like I always wanted!"
"Now that's what I wanted to hear!" She said with excitement, as her body glows again. "This is the Blueblood I wanted to see since day one, now go out there and make me proud." She said to him, coaching him like he's about to enter a boxing match.
"Will do, Death."
"Please, call me D." She said as she waved goodbye. "Oh and once you are back, can you do me a small favor? Tell Discord that D is ready to cash that favor he owes me." She shouted as the color of everything start to return.
"Discord?" Blueblood ask with a raised eyebrow.
"You will see him soon enough, believe me, he's impossible to miss. okay bye!" She yells before fading into darkness.
With a gasp, the prince opens his eyes and finds himself, once more, in the hospital with his injuries and Luna looking back at him. "Did you find your answer?" She asks hopefully.
"I did," He said with a nod before standing up and rushing to her side.
"Nephew, your injuries!" The monarch yells in fear before being surprised by a tackle hug from him. "Thank you for helping me find peace. I love you Aunt Luna." He said nuzzling her chest affectionately.
The princess is taken aback, but then she just returns the gesture with a smile. "I love you too."