Play Again?

At first, when the health issues started popping up, Asuka thought she could manage them. Then, they started to get worse, and Asuka saw the writing on the wall. Either she could move in with her son and his family for them to take care of him, or she could move into a retirement home to get the care she needed. In the end, Asuka wanted her son and his family to be able to live their lives without having to spend so much time caring for her. Not that they would mind. In fact, Cyan seems pretty upset that his mother didn't go with the former option, but she knew how much trouble home care was for the caretakers, and she loved her son too much to put him through that. Around 20 years back, Asuka's sister Hiari had suddenly come down with a terrible condition, and no matter what the doctors at the hospital tried, it only worsened. They lost her shortly after Asuka's 64th birthday. It was only after Hiari passed away that they learned why she'd contracted the condition in the first place. The reason she'd been on that super pension was because she used to work for the Equestrain Intelligence Agency as an undercover agent. On one of her missions, they sent her in to infiltrate some sort of cult, and some sort of injury she'd sustained during that mission infected her with something. Apparently, they'd been giving her some sort of experimental treatments since then, but after nearly 40 years the treatments just stopped working, and the infection rapidly spread. Thankfully, nobody else had caught the disease, but they unfortunately had to cremate Hiari. Juno was a wreck for the first year after Hiari passed, but he pulled through. Mateo had passed away 5 years ago from an aggressive illness that he caught during his time as a patrol officer. It had been dormant, and undetected for decades, but at the age of 78 one of Mateo's doctors caught on to it. Mateo was given 1 year to live, but he was a stubborn bastard, and he hung on for 5 years. Now, it was just Asuka, Juno, Cyan, Ami, and their families. When Asuka finally moved into a retirement home, Juno came with her. He thought she might get a little lonely in their alone, but it turns out they were both pretty popular with the residents. Asuka looks to Cyan and his family as she lays in bed. They'd just finished talking about the new job her granddaughter had just gotten, and it was getting close to dinnertime. With a chuckle, Asuka looks to her son. She takes a moment to catch her breath before speaking. "Sorry Cyan, but I'm feeling a bit tired at the moment. Think I'm going to catch a quick nap before dinner. We'll have to finish watching that little medical drama you found when I wake up." Cyan grabs his mother's hand/hoof, and gives it a small squeeze as he responds. "Of course mom. I won't watch a second more until you wake up." To this, Asuka attempts to chuckle, but no sound comes out. Instead, she silently bobs her head as if she were chuckling, and slowly drifts off. https://youtu.be/e__Z-UpU01U When Asuka opens her eyes, she finds that she is no longer lying in bed, but rather, she's standing in Vanhoover Central Park during the middle of winter. A quick glance at her hands/hooves shows that they're smooth, if a little calloused. She's slightly taller, and she appears to be wearing some decently fashionable winter clothing. When she manages to turn her attention away from herself, she notices that instead of the frozen over pond that should be in the middle of the park, there's a single swing set, with a young stallion swinging on it. The snow surrounding Asuka's feet/hooves doesn't feel particularly cold, but it does crunch as she walks through it. However, when she looks back, she doesn't see any prints. When she gets close enough to the swing set to make out the figure swinging, a wry smile forms on her lips. "Hey Mophead. Long time, no see." The figure appears to turn around as he is on his backswing. He then sticks his feet/hooves out to stop himself. "Oh, hey Sock. I wasn't sure when you'd show up. I've been waiting here a while." Asuka blinks in shock a few times before responding. "Like, a few decades or-" To this, Nar shakes his head. "Oh god no. Just a few hours." Asuka's head cranes as she tries to rationalize what she's experiencing. "So is this the afterlife, or what?" Nar turns around on the swing in order to face Asuka at this point. "Well, kinda. It's kinda weird. The real afterlife is far beyond here. Real difficult to get to." Asuka is quite, waiting for Nar to continue. "I just didn't want you to have to get there alone, like I did. I heard your time was coming, so I rushed here to make sure you'd find your way." For some reason, Asuka doesn't believe him. Maybe it was the grin forming on his face. Nar bursts into laughter for a few seconds before he stops. "I'm just messing with you. The way to the afterlife is pretty easy actually. Just have to go through a door near the entrance to the park. You actually walked right past it." Sure enough, when Asuka turns to check there is in fact, a door at the entrance to the park. She has no idea how she managed to miss it twice. It's then that Asuka notices some sort of scene playing out near one of the trees to her left. It looks like... Her, only she's in her mid 40's, and there's a young mare, about 20 years old wrapping her in a hug. The two appear to be standing outside the main building of a sort of 'Winter Resort' with a sign that reads "Welcome to Mount Lunae, Wilderness Resort, and Sabbatical Spot." Along with some sort of sign about a Keeper or something. She couldn't read it from this far away. Then, another scene about 10 feet in the sky, directly ahead. In this one, she's in her mid 20's. She's in a dingy apartment with a tub of ice cream resting on the floor as she appears to be simply staring at the ceiling. She hears what sounds like Roy's voice, telling her to get up and make dinner, but she hardly moves. Another scene, this one of her in her early teens, alone. She's being harassed by a few older teens who have backed her into a corner in a hallway. Nobody is there to help. Then, Asuka begins to notice all the black space that makes up the sky starts to display all sorts of scenes with her in them. Some show Nar, and /or Juno, some don't. Some show her with her parents, others show her on her own. Once she's finally able to take it all in, Asuka turns to Nar. "Do you know what this is?" Nar hops off the swing as he looks up at the scenes himself. "Yeah. It's scenes from the lives of different You's. It's showing you what could have been if you made certain different choices, only those aren't just images. Those are really different versions of you, living those lives. The two spend a few minutes simply watching the different Asuka's and their lives before Asuka thinks to ask Nar another question. "So. Did you see this 70 years ago? When you died?" To this, Nar nods. "Yep." Another moment of silence before a follow-up question is posed. "Were yours like this too?" Nar is quiet for a moment. "There weren't nearly as many. I only saw about 10. You must have dozens, if nor a few hundred floating around in here." "So. You just don't exist in most of these then." Asuka muses. Nar simply nods. "We're two of the lucky ones. The ones who actually got to live our lives together." Had she the ability to do so, Asuka would probably have started crying. The next bout of silence is almost unbearably long for Asuka. Nar simply stares up at the different Asukas, all living different lives. Asuka can't think of anything else to say, but thankfully Nar speaks up before long. "So. I guess it was good that we at least got to spend some of your life together. Even if it wasn't much." Asuka is barely able to respond with a nod. "Yeah." Nar then points to a scene just a few feet in front of them. This one shows Cyan and his family as they drive home after visiting her in the retirement home. "Looks like that one's from your life." A short pause before Nar smirks. "Damn. Cyan looks good in that hat. Where'd he get it?" Asuka huffs before she lightly punches Nar's arm. "You know where he got it, you dingus." Nar simply laughs before he turns back towards the swingset. When Asuka looks over, she notices something she hadn't noticed before. About 20 feet away from the swingset are two doors. Well, one door, and one door-shaped hole of light. It's then that Nar speaks again. "Well Sock. We've got two options. Either we go through the right door, and go to the afterlife, where we'll spend the rest of eternity." The pauses as he then turns back towards her. "Or, we go through the left door, and see where it takes us." The quiet that follows this question gives Asuka plenty of room to weigh her options. She doesn't notice it but by now, all the scenes of her lives have vanished, leaving the two with an empty, dark void for a sky again. Thoughts swirl in Asuka's head as she tries to come up with an answer. In the end, she really doesn't feel like spending eternity doing a whole lot of nothing really suits them. "Let's see where the door takes us, Mophead." Nar raises an eyebrow at this. "You sure? I have no idea where it goes, and once we go through, we can't come back." To this, Asuka smirks. "Since when were we ever known for not taking risks?" Nar nods his head in response. "Fair point." Snow crunches as the two walk to the blue door ahead. Asuka manages to make out a faded, white star as she approaches. The door gives a quiet creak as Nar turns the nob, and pulls it open. On the other side of the door, she notes the same star, except this time, it's bright white. Beyond the door now lies a black void, with nothing as far as Asuka can see. Nar looks to her, as if to give her one last chance to back out. Instead, Asuka grabs Nar's hand/hoof, and jumps headlong into the void, pulling Nar along with her. Then, all goes black as the door slams shut behind the two. Where they will end up? They don't know, but, they'll end up there together.