Green Tea's house (7:00 am)
Green Tea wiped the sweat from his brow as he put on the finishing touches to the device.
"There...I'm done. Can I go back to sleep now?", he mumbled tiredly.
No. Not yet. There is still one important piece missing from this plan.
"Oh what else could their possibly be left to do?", the tired pony asked.
How about bait for the reaper? You know, a reason for him to come to this death trap in the first place?
"...Fine...any suggestions?", Green Tea asked.
The demon used his host's body to turn his head to the left and right, scanning for something that would bring the reaper to them. After only a few minutes of scanning, the demons eyes came across a group of three young fillies heading deeper into town, more specifically, the library.
"Hey isn't that near the place that you said the yell came from?"
Get some rope. We've found our bait.
"Um...we're sort of out of rope..."
Well then you'll have to find some more. Otherwise, I'll have to settle with using your intestines.
The no longer tired green pony, ran from his house to the town market so fast that Rainbow Dash would be amazed.
Twilight's house (9:00 am)
"We're sorry," three dejected fillies said in unison. The Cutie Mark Crusaders were currently having a stern talking to about not only barging into the library and causing a mess, but for using such foul language and assaulting Gregory as well. Spike was in the dog house too because he had known they were after Gregory, and hadn't told anypony. Said dragon was sitting on a stool in the corner with a pointy 'dunce' hat on. Where Twilight had gotten one, nopony knew.
Nopony was in any mood to question her either. The girls were too sad to even say anything besides sorry over and over again, Spike was trying not to laugh, and Gregory appeared to be meditating. If only they could know the thoughts that dwelled within former priest's head.
I wonder if it's too early to judge his soul yet...I think he'd be okay a few levels down in hell for a while. I wonder if it's possible to let him see hell for a little while. Heh...maybe I should ask him to help me with the zombies tonight and then turn my back when h-, Gregory thought, but immediately cut himself off. Were the hell did that come from?
Gregory arose from his meditation and walked towards the girls. Twilight had just finished dealing the girls a severe tongue lashing, (giggity), when Gregory arrived in front of them. Applebloom, Sweetiebelle and Scootaloo looked up towards the blindfolded man, tears in their eyes. This small detail went unnoticed to Gregory, as he bent down and spread his arms out wide.Gregory allowed a small smile to find it's way on his lips as he said, "I forgive you."
Confused, the girls each voiced their own opinions simultaneously.
"Huh?"
"Wuh?"
"Uh..."
When Gregory did not feel the contact of pony hugs like he expected, he just chuckled.
"I think Twilight has given you enough of a verbal beating to make a dictionary blush. Plus, I'm sure your loved ones are going to give you pretty bad punishments each. I just wanted to let you know that even though you put me through all of...that, I forgive you."
It was a full seven seconds before Gregory was tackled by the three ponies and assaulted with hugs. During this heartwarming moment, the human reaper felt a wet warmness on his cloak. Please let that be tears and not what I'm thinking it is...I mean, yeah Twilight is scary with the whole yelling thing, but it wouldn't be bad enough for these fillies to piss themselves right?
After a while of cuddling with the now calm CMC, Gregory was freed from their tiny grasp. Brushing himself off while standing, the reaper turned to Twilight and asked, "What time is it?"
"9:47," replied the purple unicorn. "We still have some time before the meeting at 12:00 but I want to get there early to make sure everything is perfect. So with that in mind I suggest you have a light breakfast. The sooner we get to town hall and get you out in the open the better. That way once that's done, you can get to work on that safe house."
"Uh...yeah Twilight about that..."
"Hmm?"
"I actually wanted to talk to you about part of the plan," Gregory started, then remembered the CMC were still there sitting patiently.
"Uh girls...would you mind doing us a favor and giving the grown ups some alone time to talk?" This earned a sad look from the CMC(unnoticed by Gregory.)
"Aw shucks...why is it the grown ups get to do things by themselves that we cant join in?", Applebloom inquired.
"Yeah! It's not fair!", Scootaloo added in.
A sudden realization crossed Sweetiebelles face, as she slowly started to smile. "C'mon girls, these two need their...'alone time!'"
Twilight and Gregory instantly flushed at Sweetibelle's choice of words. But before either of them could tell her how inappropriate it was, the CMC had already left, slamming the door on the way out.
"Anyway...I was thinking.Wouldn't it make more sense to fortify an already existing structure instead of building one from the ground up?"
Twilight blinked twice at Gregory. Her mind went blank but only for a moment before shouting in her head, Why didn't I think of that?
"Why didn't I think of that?", She exclaimed out-loud.
"Probably because you were too busy 'persuading' him that your plan was fool proof," Spike replied from his punishment corner, giggling at what Sweetiebelle had said.
"NO TALKING WHILE IN THE PUNISHMENT CORNER!", Twilight yelled at spike.
With a nervous jump and a slight hiccup, Spike turned back to the corner and re-adjusted his dunce hat. I still don't know why she has this stupid thing.
"...Now where were we?'",Twilight continued, un-phased.
"The part about making fortifications to an already existing building big enough to hold all of Ponyville?", Gregory supplied.
"Ah yes that. Well...That would include just about any building, except of course for the CMC clubhouse I guess..."
"Wait...you're telling me that you could fit all of Ponyville into any building? How do you do it? Magic?"
"Well yes and no. Not magic in the traditional sense like making a building big enough or shrinking every pony. Magic in the mysterious sense. You know...something that happens and you cant figure it out no matter how hard you try?"
"...Pinkie Pie?'
"Pinkie Pie. My first day here, she threw me a party with all of Ponyville in this tree house."
"Oh yes. I remember you telling me about that..."
The rest of their free time was spent with Gregory and Twilight enjoying a meal at the table and conversing, while Spike had to eat his breakfast in the corner and keep quiet. It wasn't long though until Twilight let her 'need too keep everything scheduled and in order' kicked in, as she started shoving Spike an Gregory through the door. On the way out, she had cast an invisibility spell on Gregory to keep him hidden until his big moment. This didn't help with the fact he was still blindfolded in an unfamiliar area with no sense of direction or any knowledge of where exactly they were going.
But, being creative and brilliant as Gregory was, he decided to use his robes abilities to alleviate his sensitivity to color. This, not surprising in the least, came in the form of a pair of sunglasses. Stylish as they were, nopony got to enjoy how they looked on him.
By the time they had reached the stage in the center of town, it was 11:50. Not a lot of time for Twilight, but she had pulled through in tighter situations. Along the way there, Gregory had decided to count just how many ponies were in Ponyville. At first he didn't seem worried because they only passed a few here and there. When they made it to the stage however, he noticed a huge increase in populace.
Apparently this was big news for the ponies, which wasn't really that surprising. What WAS surprising was the fact that they all looked...happy. Gregory had excepted there to be ponies agitated and alert, or at the very least bored to be at a mandatory public meeting. But all through the audience, ponies were chatting away and making several body gestures to one another. It reminded Gregory of the way people in Nalarath acted. If he had to guess, he would have said there were at least 400 ponies there, when it reality, it was more like 190-200.Gregory wasn't given much time to enjoy the situation though as Twilight interrupted his thoughts once they were both behind the curtain on stage.
"Okay Gregory," she started. "I want to explain to you exactly how this will work. Mayor Mare will give an announcement that I have an announcement. Then she will come back here and switch with me so that I may announce you. Once I announce you, you will make your announcement to the ponies. After that, we shall have a short Q&A, maybe 30 minutes at the latest. After that, you announce that Pinkie has something to say. Then she will announce about the party. We need to be done with this whole introduction by 3:00 maximum, with the party starting at 4. This should be more then enough time for Pinkie to plan for her party. Oh and don't worry about filling her and the others in on the change of plans involving the barricade. I've asked Spike to seek out and tell the others in privacy."
"...You like to think many steps ahead of life don't you Twilight?" Gregory asked.
Twilight simply beamed at this. "Thank you Gregory! I like to think of myself as a well thought out kind of pony."
"It wasn't exactly a compliment but whatever."
Before Twilight could question his rudeness, she heard Mayor Mare introduce her name through the speaker system. This was met with a chorus of stomping and cheering for the young purple librarian. As Twilight pushed back the curtains to make herself visible, she dropped the invisibility spell on Gregory. Just as she made it to the podium...just as things were starting to look good for everyone...just when Gregory had hope in this new situation...the worst possible thing happed.
Hey Gregory! What's up?
Death? You're back so soon?
Yeah I just finished judging like...3000 souls.
Wow. How do you do it?
Well if were being completely honest, I just kind of put them into different categories and did single file judges instead of reviewing every single soul.
...Your joking?
Hey it worked! I judged 57 pedophiles, 113 murderers, 30 rapist's and the others labeled 'innocent' in about 4 hours.
Define...pretty much innocent?
Eh...what I would consider...a non-lethal way of life. Simple crimes like stealing, forgery, insurance fraud, blah blah etc. etc.
Those aren't considered good enough reasons for even the lowest circle in hell?
Not unless it was a REALLY big deal and lots of people got injured. But from the quick testimonies I heard, it sounded like only one or two people got hurt. And they were really sorry about doing it.
...And you bought that?
...Yeeeeeeeeah. Ah well. I'm sure one of the angels will get it sorted out. I bet they haven't made it past the gates yet anyway.
That's not the point Death! You're just creating more needless work for the people upstairs because you're too lazy to do yours right!
...I guess your right... Anyway, where are you now?
If you must know I'm currently behind a curtain on a stage in the middle of Ponyville.
...I see...So we're going with this plan then?
It's not like we really have a choice...
So too clarify...We are about to be introduced by Twilight to all of Ponyville...I'm guessing hundreds of them right?
Yeah...
And this is our one and only true shot at making a good first impression, right?
Yeah...
Well then...I suppose it would be a really dick move to take over your body now wouldn't it?
...
...
Don't you even think abo-
Too late!
DAMN YOU TOO HELL DEATH!
I bet you wish you could right now!
YEAH! NOW GIVE ME BACK MY BODY BEFO-
"Fillies and Gentlecolts, I present to you, Gregory the human!"
Hold that thought Gregory! I've got ponies to meet!