*Dead As*

(OoC and Sign Ups)

The melancholy rocks swirled into a roof where cracks had cracks and the edges led to nopony knows where. The occasional titter or cackle could get lost in every long forgotten crevasse, the sound restricted in stone. The sun deprived depths had been known to make their own with tiny, luminescent mushrooms and lichen. Their species knitting a spectrum otherwise unseen here to offer not exactly light, but a means with which to avoid the surrounding pits to likely nothing.

The tales of the underworld spoke more of Changelings and beasts half-mad. The only tale that does not, tells of the roots of every tree in Equestria delving towards a central point. Each ancient limb was said to carry the spirits of the past through this point, in the hopes that they might keep the land green and lush. If in drought or if in bitter cold, those long past would rise up to breathe life to new growth there. Once it would take hold, the soul could rest contented.

You plummet into these caves, your form shaken and maddeningy confused you flop from the root tip and onto the obsidion floor. Your solid. Something once thought to be unikely from now on.

"Ayeda!" A voice calls. "Come! We begin immediately."

 

"That's it! Come on! One hoof, then another. Well done." Said the waspish pony appearing from the gloom beyond Ayeda's vision. The tiny rimmed glasses on the otherwise shrvelled mare gave the impresson of glasses on a prune. Her mane was blue dyed half to death, becoming as wirey as a scouring brush.

"Is that seaweed?" The mare asks, squinting at Ayeda. She reashes up and attemprs to brush the errant plantlife away. "Oh! It's your mane! Get a brush through it deary, you look like death!"

The laugh that followed had the rapier like quality of a witch's cackle, rasping to it's conclusion with a clattering, wheezing, cough.

"'Scuse me. I think it's the spores. C'mon, we got others comin' too. Walk an' talk, honey! Walk 'n' talk."

The mare turns around, heading back into the dark of the caves.

 

"Doesn't matter! Won't seeing me again unless you screw up big time. Now! Spit somewhere. The salt in your mouth probably doesn't taste too good, huh? It's not actually there, but your says so so there's so saltiness is all there is. I got no lungs but I cough like a drain. No sense in it. I could die for a tea right now!"

Another uproar which snarled into a good start but then splutters into a hollow gasp.

"Ugh! No sense in it! No lungs but I think I should so I do. Stupid! Absolutely stupid! Left here."

The old mare points to her side and directs Ayeda into a huge throne room. There was a slow dripping of water into pools off in the background like an ambient track. The mushrooms grew even largerin here, their light refracted through jagged crystals in the rock. The spectra cast gave the place this eerie sense of contrast as the shining becon in the dark depths.

"We'll wait in here for her highness." The old mare said, leading them both through towards the throne at the other end. A huge seat, cut from the rock, glittering with it's cystaline jewels and mushroom-given shine. It seemed an intimidating seat.

The old mare looks to Ayeda again: "Is that seaweed?"

She peers at Ayeda's mane.

"Oh! Just your mane. Eyesight's not what it was though you still look like death. Better fix yourself up a bit."

A moment passes, then a chuckle snorts from her mouth.

"Look like death! Ha!"

 

"Eh? Oh! I don't normally do this. This is Ethereal, the kingdom of the dead." The old mare explains. "When a pony is laid to rest, they come here and lend themselves to some natual whozits. Some ponies become magic, some become trees or crops, some become new foals. That sorta thing. Like a soul recycling plant. Bin going for longer than most princess' have."

The old mare scans Ayeda's face for any sign of recolection.

"Any of this ringin' a bell? I don't want to bore you."

 

(That's right.)

"The queen has a mission for you." The old mare said. "Something special."

 

"Another one! Good! How are you feeling? Need to split? Your Twinkle Toes, yes? How's the head? Elephant stampedes are murder."

The elderly mare nudges Ayeda in the ribs, cackling once more.

"Murder! Ha!"

 

A pony suddenly appears, a black wing having slipped in from nothig then opened up to allow the rest through. An alicorn sitting atop the huge, stone throne. Her rather short mane covered half her face in a tinted coil. It was closer to a vague aberration of obfuscation than any hair or fibre. It shone despite it's unsolid nature with an oily spectra, covering what was assumed to be a second bored eye looking over the assembled.

"Cool." She said flatly, her nose apparently afixed in the air. "They seem kinda calm for this. They OK? If they're gonna work for me, I don't want crazies."

The old mare bows low.

"This is Queen-"

"Yeah, yeah. I want this over with." The Queen dismissively waves her hoof. She then stands up and begins to walk slowly towards them.

"Who wants to return to the living world? A once in an afterlife time oppotunity! I get to say so, we just gotta make a little deal."

 

"Yes! Return to the living world because you are dead. You are here, down with me, because you are now a spirit. A ghost! Glory, how much have you told them?"

The old mare jerks up suddenly: "I told 'em all they need. Some ponies need a little second to get it through their heads. Be slow, it's kinda hard for 'em."

"Uh, I'm running out of time! If we can't be picky on who we send, then we can't be slow either! I mean, look at this one!" The Queen raises a hoof at the approaching Blue Tide, glaring at the old mare. "You're letting them wander around alone? Hello! Big disturbance above, got 'Sunbright' and 'The Evil Relapse Waiting to Happen' breathing down my neck and we've got to get orientation over tout suite! Go see if there's others!"

The old mare bows and backs away at a surprising speed, all the way out of sight. Without a single look behind her or a lift off her head, as if someone slammed her into reverse.

The Queen looks each assembled pony in the eye.

"This is the deal. I send you back up to the living world but you now act as my representatives. You're going to be working with some scientists, they'll be able to make you ready to deal with the spirits which escape from me. You work, you get to earn some time off, we'll arrange it later! But this is the only way you're getting back to the world above!"

Her gaze pierces each pony individually once more. She was looking for full loyalty here, clearly.

"You work, you get an afterlife. Deal?"

 

The Queen smiles, looking down at the pony. For a moment, the black curl over her face was angled just enough to show a flash of bone around the eye as she looks down upon the Ayeda.

"Good! Glad to see some enthusiasm. Like, you're not getting a better deal than this. Few mortals ever do, got it. Once in a...an afterlifetime oppotunity."