Death walked back and forth in his cave. The recent events at Canterlot had really been a large problem for the whole reaper organization. Reapers had to keep a lower profile than before, as people had started to get aware of their existence. All this because four reapers had broken the code. The four reapers had a very good reason for why they did it, and he had already talked to Celestia about it. The four didn't have to be punished for it.
He was black, with a black mane that had white stars in it. His eyes were burning red, and his cutiemark was a skull with a scythe. His wings were huge, tattered and really old. He had never been able to uphold them as good as his brother, Blood Fangs had. Yet could he still fly.
It had been over a thousand years since Celestia first had spoken with him, as Nightmare Moon still was controlling her followers from the moon. They made a deal where he would drag a few ponies that had died and offer them a second chance as a reaper. This had worked very well.
A reaper never aged either. They were young forever, but a spell cast over them would make ordinary ponies forget them within a month. But still. They weren't immortal. A reaper could be killed the same way a normal pony would, but they had enchanted speed and agility, so killing one was hard. Yet only one of the original one hundred reapers was still alive. That was his brother.
The sun was shining as the four ponies cooperated on setting the large wagon safely up. It was a quiet and quite away-hidden place, and not really many ponies visited it. Especially not on a day like this.
Most ponies were now visiting Canterlot instead, just to get a peak at the castle. It was still hanging in a 30 degrees tilt from the magic chains, and more had been added to make sure it didn't fall.
This was the perfect day for them to just relax as reapers, and that was the plan, so they all changed their shapes.
Horror settled by the riverbank, looking at his reflection. He sighed. "Blood Fangs…"
Stormy clouds trotted over, quickly joined by the rest. "You know him?"
Horror looked at them. "Sadly."
"Then tell us what you know. We need to know our enemy." Darth settled besides him.
"Sure, sure." Horror closed his eyes so he could remember.
It was getting dark, and the reapers were all watching as the cult members were dancing around the fireplace, trying to spawn something. This cult had been causing a lot of trouble around Equestria, and they were now trying to summon Nightmare Moon to cast the country into eternal night.
I was standing on a branch. I wasn't entirely sure, as this was his first mission. I was surrounded by many legends where several of them were among the one hundred original reapers. This was a big thing for me.
A black reaper landed besides me. "You look scared. What's the matter?" It was Death's brother, Blood Fangs. He was one of the first reapers, ever.
"Eh…" I sighed.
"I get it." Blood chuckled. "You're shy as you are surrounded by legends. Don't worry. You'll become a legend too. I'm sure."
Our goal was to crush the cult, once and for all.
Death landed besides us. "So it begins. The final battle." He nodded. And we attacked the cult members. The battle was intense and lasted for several hours, but we won without a large loss.
I hadn't really been doing much, as I still was unfamiliar with my powers. As I looked around did I spot Death. He was looking for someone.
He sighed as I walked up to him. "What's the issue?"
"Blood is missing." He actually sounded scared.
I sighed and looked a bit around. "I'm sure he's fine. Probably resting a bit."
Death sighed too and nodded. "Probably. But I have some stuff to attend to." He then vanished in a flash.
I sighed and sat down. That's when it happened. Several flashes and many reapers just dropped dead. The rest panicked and started running. I joined them. Someone had attacked while we had our guard down.
As we were galloping away could we hear screams of fear and pain. The attacker wasn't normal.
We stopped by a cliff. We knew that flying was not a good idea, so we started planning. It was then it happened. Within a flash was Blood Fangs standing before us. He grinned.
"Oh. Good to see that you guys are alive." His voice was slick and sarcastic.
"What's the point of this!" The one who had lead us to here stepped forward. "I thought you were one of us! We all thought so!" as he was speaking was he writing a message in the dust. "Jump"
Blood fangs could only laugh. "Oh. So that's what you think. Too bad it's not really like that." His grin was filled with madness ad he charged up an attack.
Only a few of us jumped, and we were among the few who survived. The damages we got kept us down for a whole year. Some others had survived too, so after a year could we start up again.
Horror opened his eyes again. The bright sun blinded him a bit.
"Sounds a bit farfetched if you ask me…" Miasmic yawned a bit.
Stormy growled and hit his side, hard. "Then you apparently haven't been paying attention before. This story is a fact, as we all are told about it. Names were never mentioned in it, and that's why you object."
Miasmic rolled his eyes. "So you are saying the this Blood Fang douche is Death's brother?"
Stormy growled more.
Horror and Darth got up and left the two alone.
Darth looked at him. "Does that make you a legend?"
"Not in my eyes." He shook his head. "I would have been a legend if I had stopped him, which is impossible. I'm one of the oldest active reapers instead."
"You mean…" Darth looked at him.
Horror looked at the lake they had set up a camp with. "Most of the ones from that event have later retired or vanished without a trace."
They talked about everything and nothing for an few hours, while Miasmic and Stormy kept shouting at each other on the other side where the lake turned into a river.
Horror sighed and looked at them. "Will they ever stop fighting?"
Darth laughed a bit. "I don't think so."
They laughed a bit and then headed for a nearby hill, where they settled down to watch the sunset. The day ended just as great as it had started.