Work Text:
Luka woke up in his my little pony themed bed, sighing in pain as his back ached from sleeping in an odd position, And his head ached from a hangover. It had been 7 years since it all happened, when he defeated Till on the stage and won again, when he met Hyuna for the last time, when he fiddled his fuck ass violin during a fucking rave. The events still held in his mind like a parasite, especially the end. Luka pulled himself up and put down the twilight sparkle pillow he was cuddling and yawned, letting his arms stretch out as if he was a cute anime girl, which he fucking isn’t. He pushed his feet into his slippers and got up, beginning his morning routine, knowing he had to be ready soon as he’d be going to a special event today. He was already feeling the urge to distract himself from his thoughts.
As he brushed his teeth like a you’re telling me a murder this drone, his mind went back to the events of that fateful day. Hyuna had been shot, her last words to him… he could still remember them so clearly, that pink haired girl… Mizi was it? Had thrown a bunch of tomatoes at him, staining his signature white clothes with ugly shades of warm browns before making her escape . and Till? Well he died from the shot earlier. Thinking about it again made his heart shatter into a million tiny pieces that could be taken away by a horde of ants. Almost ready, Luka glanced at the cupboard. There was an urge, an irresistible urge to open it and- Luka already had the pills in his hand. He downed more than he was probably supposed to, he wasn’t really sure at this point as it had been a long time since he used his pain relief medication how it was supposed to be used. He felt the want to take more but he suppressed the urge, putting back his now half empty bottle of medication in the cupboard.
Before Luka knew it he had already gotten ready and was looking at himself in the mirror, the opiods had finally kicked in and Luka felt a sense of calmness, even mild euphoria. He ran his blue tipped hands through his light blonde hair to check his regressing hairline, narrowing his similarly colored eyes in a disgruntled frown as he noticed it was getting worse. He let his hair loose again and shook it up. It wasn’t particularly visible quite yet, but he would have to do something about it soon. Luka wheezed pathetically, he felt another fit coming, he covered his mouth with the sleeve of his arm and let out a series of painful dry coughs. Heaving as he finally stopped. He cleared his throat and looked up at his mirror one last time, straightening his SLUTTY white clothes and leaving his room.
Before he knew it he was in a bright pink cab with his guardian Heperu. Everything in the vehicle was a sickly bright shade of pink that made you want to throw up even glancing at it, so Luka remained silent as he looked thoughtfully out the window, trying to avoid having to look at the disgusting color of pink before he felt another fit of coughs coming, promptly doing so. Heperu turned his attention towards Luka, frowning- or well- whatever expression he was making.
“The treatments for your ailment haven’t been working well have they?” He said disapprovingly. “Everything will be fine.” Luka responded apathetically, returning to his sightseeing. He didn’t feel much up to speaking about his sickness, especially at the rate it was going. The only reason he wasn’t dying in bed with yellowed skin and failing lungs right now was due to the medical technology the segyein’s had developed, staunching the development of his sickness from getting worse and making it better, at least it was getting better for a time.
“What about the pain relief medication? Are you feeling any better?”
Luka nodded in the dronish way he tended to do still looking out when Something caught his attention, a strange angelic figure, looking straight at him. His mind began racing with all of the possibilities of what that possibility could have been, though his thoughts were stopped when Heperu called his name. Snapping back to reality he realized they were already at their destination. He scoffed, when had he gotten so easily distracted?
Luka climbed out of the cab, letting out a sigh of relief not having to see that disgusting pink color anymore. He looked at the building they were supposed to enter, it was pale in color, built with two circles next to each other as the base, and a longer protruding tower coming from the area the two circles connected from. The roof was rounded with soft pink shingles and a fountain protruded from the middle of the roof. Luka found it an… odd shape, but he didn’t think much of it, entering the tower through a revolving door placed in the middle of each circle with Heperu. A human greeted them, a woman of no notable features wearing formal attire and a collar around her neck. “Welcome to The Penice, what can I do for you today?” Okay the theming of this place was definitely on purpose, Luka wasn’t seeing things. Either way they made it past security and were guided to the elevator where they began their ascending upwards. The ride up was filled with awkward silence. Heperu cleared his throat maybe 10 seconds into the wait. Luka later sniffled. Some time had passed and they still weren't on their floor.
More time had passed and yet… not on their floor yet
A minute later the elevator was still ascending
Two minutes later and it still was.
Three minutes later an- Okay this is getting old
Finally the door opened and they walked through a hall, finally entering the room that had been reserved for the event, lots of well known Segyeins and their pet humans were mingling, some were drinking and others were… Well let’s just say partaking in consuming not so legal substances. This immediately caught Luka’s attention. He felt as if his skin had bugs under them, itching to get out and only being able to be released through the consumption of those substances. Given that Heperu was near however, he knew he’d have to wait until later, attempting to stifle the urge until he could get his guardian distracted. A few hours went by, Luka was forced to mingle with the others, putting on a charming show as he did, that came naturally to a multiple time winner of Alien stage. Yet, he felt completely exhausted already. He had been for the last several years as nothing felt the same. His only cope was drugs and he really needed them now. Finally, Heperu was too distracted babbling on with some old acquaintances and Luka was able to escape towards his only goal, Lean. After some more talking he was happily offered to join in on partaking in the illegal substances. He found himself enjoying lines of coke and weed, yet he only felt worse, going back to that scene in his head of Hyuna leaving. It was miserable. If she was in his arms she’d be safe, not in that wretched outside world. Hands shaking and experiencing a major headache Luka made himself a blend of lean, throwing whatever else he could in there as well and chugging it all down as fast as he could. “Ugh…” His vision felt blurry as he lay on the fancy sofa he was sitting on, he felt dizzy as his headache only got worse. His breathing felt shallow and rushed, before he felt another series of coughs begin, he coughed and coughed, wheezing between each episode unable to stop, he felt cold as his vision finally gave way.
The sounds of blaring red emergency lights lit up the hospital as Doctor Nuggs wheeled Luka down the halls as fast as they could. They got to a hospital room where Dr. Nuggs began communicating with the other medical professionals on board.
“We’re losing him!” One of them hollered, noticing how erratic his heart rate was becoming.
“Get him on a breathing tube!” Dr. Nuggs yelled as they injected a Fluid into Luka’s vein.
“It’s no use! His readings are in the red and they’re only getting worse!” Another doctor yelled.
“No!” Dr. Nuggs cried as they tried to get Luka’s heart rate down. “We can’t lose him!”
And then it happened- the sound of the heart monitor became a cohesive, loud, straight buzzing. Dr. Nuggs’ eyes were wild with terror at the thought of losing Luka. Luka was her idol, her oshi… this- this couldn’t be happening. Dr. Nuggs rushed to begin chest compressions on Luka, pumping their arms down again and again with a fast and concise rhythm. Yet it was no use. Luka was gone.
“Nonononono….” Nuggs whimpered. The sound of the flatline was all that they could hear. It was silent in the hospital room apart from that deafening noise.
Luka gasped. He opened his eyes and looked at his surroundings. noticing he was in a place… unfamiliar. He quickly realized he was laying on the floor and sat up. The entire space he was in was a starry sky. He was sitting on the landing tread of an almost invisible staircase, and on the side was a blonde haired girl wearing a gothic style of black and purple clothing with an eyepatch, holding a quill pen in one hand and a white bunny plushie in the other.
“Welcome to the afterlife, my name is Zephyr and I’ll be the judge of your life.”
Luka stood up, baffled. “What do you mean?”
“You’re dead.” Zephyr responded simply. His eyes widened as he couldn’t help but smile. “OHOH YOU’RE THAT CRIP WALK GUY” He giggled into his bunnie plushie.
“Wait- what.” Luka didn’t know where to start, he was dead? AND WHAT WAS A CRIP WALK????
“Yeah in Blink gone!”
Luka’s head felt dizzy at the mention of that god forsaken round. “How… did I die..?”
“Are you stupid? You died of a Lean overdose at age 37.” Zephyr replied aggressively.
Luka winced at the reaction and looked a bit angry himself. “Alright I get it!”
Zephyr stared at him for a moment, before smiling smugly. “Alright, let’s get onto your judgment.” They said, looking down on a piece of paper. “My my my…”
Luka raised an eyebrow at the ‘my my my’.
Zephyr laughed. They looked at Luka with a smile. “Alright, your fate is decided.” They cleared their throat and stood up from their chair. “Luka Syndrome, you will be sent to….”
Luka didn't really feel much pressure from this moment, either way he didn’t really care.
“Hell!” Zephyr finally answered.
“Okay.” Luka replied curtly.
“? Wow okay, usually we’d get more of a reaction from that- welp- off you go!” Zephyr pointed the white bunny doll down the staircase, guiding Luka towards the direction he was meant to go.
Luka sighed, walking down the stairs he was directed to go down. And he went, and he went, and he went, and he went, and he- OKAY THIS IS GETTING OLD.
After what seemed like forever Luka finally made it to a set of rusty black gates, he could feel the heat of hell on his face before he even entered. He looked at the gates with uncertainty when they opened automatically for him. Luka simply shrugged and waltzed on in. The gates closing behind him.
“WEEEELLLCOMEEEE” Yelled a really annoying voice. Luka looked over to the side to see an ugly blue cookie dressed as a jester standing with a staff.
“Who are you?” Luka asked, a little stunned by this guys loud voice.
“I… am shadow. Milk. Cookie. THEEE MOST POWERFUL COOKIE HERE HAHAHA!”
“…?”
“Name’s Luka right? I think you’ll be seeing some faces that won’t like seeing you here! Why don’t you go further in?” He giggled. Luka didn’t respond he just left. That guy was too unbearable to continue listening to. As he went further into hell he could only here the sounds of sinners screaming as they were whipped and hogtied or boiled alive with no end in sight. It wasn’t much of a surprise to him. That’s what you’re meant to expect from hell right? Luka froze as a knife flew past him, grazing his blonde hair.
“Applesplit you missed!” A tall pale yellow Pegasus with red hair exclaimed to his shorter, blue-gray equally ginger freckled earth pony companion. “Maybe I wouldn’t have missed if you weren’t in the way!” The earth pony, presumably named Appleplit hissed. Luka recognized these two as one off background ponies. The Pegasus was named Care Package, he was a delivery pony if he remembered right. What were these two doing in hell?
“What are you looking at faggot?” Applesplit grimaced as they looked at Luka with disgust.
“You just tried to stab me?”
“Yeah forget it! I don’t want to stab you anymore anyways.” Applesplit sat on the ground grumpily, as Care package lowered his neck down to speak to Applesplit. “We still need to get your knife back, what if we lose it?”
Applesplit sighed. “I guess you’re right…” they got up and began trotting towards where the knife had landed. Before Care Package left, he looked over at Luka. “You died of a lean overdose at age 37 didn’t you? Just like Anne Boonchuy from Amphibia. Although… she went somewhere far different from you.” He gave Luka a friendly smile before hurrying over to trot next to Applesplit.
“What.” That was the only word Luka could muster saying. This place was weird. Really weird.
Luka continued down his path, exploring hell as he had nothing else to do. He arrived at a bridge, it was creaky and old, and looking down he realized that rather than water, underneath the bridge was a slurry of lost souls. Luka didn’t want to get lost so he’d have to be careful. Carefully, he made his first step onto the bridge and I really don’t feel like writing this part so just imagine he almost falls but miraculously makes it to the other side. Luka let out a sigh of relief as he pulled himself up onto the ground. Getting up he continued his journey, now feeling an odd sense of being on a mission. This wasn’t just exploration, he was searching for something, for someone. He began walking up a hill, as he continued up things began to calm. Rather than the red heat of hell there was the gentle warmth of the sun. He could hear the sound of bird call, before there was coldness. Bugs with hundreds of legs crawled on the floor. They doubled by the second until all Luka could see were those black centipedes. He scowled in disgust but continued. He knew in his heart this was where he was supposed to go. He reached the top of the hill, where there was a door. There was a sign next to the door reading “King Yaoi III” who was that? Luka knocked on the door but it ended up opening on it’s own. The feeling of knowing Luka had before dissipating, he reluctantly entered the room on the other side of the door. A man with black hair was sitting by a fire place, reading a book. Luka’s eyes narrowed as he tried to make out who it was. He gingerly walked over, to find that it was…. IVAN ALIEN STAGE?!?! Oh this faggot. Ivan looked over at Luka, his eyes widening. “LUKA?!”