//------------------------------//
// Futility 
// Story: Reaper: Requiem's Reflection 
// by Ise no Kami 
//------------------------------//

	Trixie trudged through the wide open plains of Equestria, utterly alone. Since Alex had left her, she had been utterly lost in these empty fields, fending for herself against the hordes of bloodthirsty monsters. And without her travelling stage, she no longer had a place to call home. Exhausted, completely drained of all hope, she stopped at the edge of a cliff, overlooking more plains below. If the sky hadn't been green, the view would have surely been beautiful. She let her legs give way, and fell to the ground.
Just then, a tall white mare approached her silently from behind. Trixie looked behind her to see her monarch, Princess Celestia. She quickly got to her hooves and bowed before her ruler. Even she knew to show respect to someone in Celestia's position.
"There is no need for that, 'Great and Powerful Trixie,'" Celestia reassured her. "You may rise."
Trixie rose, and took a good look at her monarch for the first time in her life. Honestly, she was awed by her gleaming white coat, her magnificent ethereal mane, her...cold blood red eyes....
"I believe you've come in contact with a member of another species, a human," Celestia mentioned in a motherly tone that suddenly sounded sinister. "Do you know where he might be?"
"N-no...I don't..." Trixie replied, unnerved out of her usual act. She instinctively backed away from the princess of the sun. From her new angle, she got a glimpse of her cutie mark, the sun eclipsed in blood.
Lucifer realized how many warning bells were going off in the blue pony's head. "Heh. Never was that good at acting," he joked to himself, dropping Celestia's voice in favor of his own. "I think you know what I want. Where is Alex?"
"I don't know! I swear!" Trixie screamed in fear. She backed up further, until her hoof was met only with empty air. End of the line.
"Then I'll just take you instead," Lucifer threatened, moving closer to the helpless pony. "Who knows, he might come save you."
As if in reply, as massive snow flurry whipped up between them, separating them in a haze of white. When the flurry disappeared, Trixie was nowhere to be seen.
"Hmph. Guess I have my answer," Lucifer snarled in disgust, before disappearing himself.


Let me tell you a story...
There once were three friends,
who couldn't be any closer.
Until one fateful day,
when a great darkness attacked
and threatened their world.
The three friends were called upon
to face this great foe.
One was corrupted by the darkness,
and became evil himself.
Another lost someone dear to him,
and was consumed by grief.
The third fell to the darkness,
and was forced to serve it forever.
Their friendship is no more,
shattered by the malevolent darkness
that they all now serve.






Lyra ran for her life, bounding from rooftop to rooftop to escape the pack of green wolves hounding her. She already knew there was no point in fighting the monsters. Her friend Bon Bon had tried, thinking her expertise with monsters would keep her safe. Instead, those abominations had...had.... Lyra subconsciously squeezed her eyes shut at the thought of that horror. Her friend was gone. She did not intend to be next.
Unfortunately, she had no choice in the matter. She suddenly found herself at the edge of a normally busy street, with no other rooftops to jump to. She looked down at the street below, only to see the same murderous chaos that gripped the rest of town. Behind her, the wolves approached slowly, waiting to pounce on their helpless prey. Lyra closed her golden eyes for the last time, shaking in fear even as she gave in to death. Only that death didn't come. When her fear was met only with silence, she opened her eyes to see the new human standing over her, extending one of his marvelous hands to her for support, while the other held a massive scythe.
"You okay?" Daniel asked, concerned. "They're gone. You're safe now." Lyra was speechless as he helped her to her hooves. "Anyway, you have a train to catch." He turned his scythe into astral energy and dissipated it, then picked the mint mare up. "Let's get going." He vaulted from rooftop to rooftop, over all the chaos below, all the way to the train station. He skipped the entire line and got Lyra directly onto the train, without bothering to get her a ticket. Before he could leave, however, the doors closed and the train left.
"Whoops," Daniel noticed sheepishly. He looked around to see lots of other ponies in the car with them. "Looks like the others are doing well, though."
"Yes, you're all doing a very good job of corralling these pathetic ponies into one little pen."
Daniel immediately jumped into alertness as he heard Faris' disembodied voice. "The trip's going to be a long one. How about we play a game to pass the time?" On that cue, everypony's eyes became glowing red sockets, and they all turned menacingly to Daniel. "I'll be waiting at the front. Have fun."
Just as Daniel realized what was happening, he was buried in a sea of homicidal ponies. He quickly beat away the waves of possessed horses, making sure not to do them any serious harm. He expects me to kill these poor ponies, Daniel thought. Well too bad. I'm not giving that sick b@#$#@# what he wants. To that end, he broke one of the nearby windows, and vaulted through, hoping to use the rooftops to skip the whole train. As he flew out the window, however, a possessed Lyra clamped her teeth on his pants, and followed her "prey" out of the train.
Daniel grabbed onto the top of the window frame as he soared through it, using his momentum to swing upward onto the roof of the train car. Lyra's grip on his pant leg was too weak to take this force, and she was flung away. Daniel noticed this, and sent out a tendril of astral mist to break her fall. Looking back, he saw that the unharmed, but still possessed, Lyra was trying her hardest to keep up with the train. Knowing she was safe, Daniel started to move along the tops of the cars. Faris caught on, sending several possessed pegasi out of their train cars after him. He swatted each one aside as they rushed him, using his astral mist whenever their wings weren't enough to keep them airborne after the blow. Soon enough, he reached the roof of the engine car. Faris teleported in front of him to greet him.
"Well, aren't you the noble hero," Faris mocked. "The Grim Reaper, unwilling to do his job? You must think you're so selfless." His eyes flashed an ominous red. "Well here's your reward!"
Faris' whole body burst with dark red energy, which he sent through a portal along with dozens of knives. Suddenly, Daniel heard the sound of scraping metal behind him, and turned around. Everything that Faris had thrown through the portal was ripping the train apart, reducing the cars to massive scraps of twisted metal. The pegasi who had been hounding him were close enough to be caught in the blast. All of those ponies Daniel had made the effort to spare were just gone in the blink of an eye. As he took in the sight, Daniel convulsed with rage, and a black aura surrounded him, granting him the Nightmare armor once more.
"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS WASTE OF LIFE WITH YOUR OWN!" he yelled as he rushed Faris with lightning speed.
Faris simply extended a knife chain in front of himself, blocking the blow. To his mild surprise, the chain broke apart a second later as Daniel plowed through it with sheer force. In response, he jumped backwards into the air, and opened a number of portals. He extended his knife chains into two portals, and they came out all the others, turning two chains into a dozen. They raced towards their target, only for Daniel to strike their ends as they converged with enough force to shatter all the chains into their individual knives.
"Rather impressive," Faris mock complimented. "It seems you've gotten quite powerful in the short time since we last fought. Unfortunately, that means I have to cut our skirmish short." He reached out and snapped his fingers...and nothing happened.
"Sorry, but your master already set off your bomb," Daniel informed Faris, before practically teleporting to him and smashing him onto the tracks. Before Faris could reach the ground, he was hit with the full force of the still-moving engine car, now moving faster without the weight of the other cars to carry. Daniel teleported in front of the train, and put the full force of his blade into Faris' back. This force actually derailed the train, causing it to tumble through the surrounding forest, killing every tree it plowed through. Eventually, the engine car, and its two superpowered passengers, barreled over the edge of Galloping Gorge. Faris hit the ground first, hard. Seeing his opportunity, Daniel used all his power to strike the engine car, sending it crashing down at hundreds of miles per hour, until it slammed into its target with full force.
Daniel landed on his feet, and stared hard at the wreck of the train, fire still burning in his lime green eyes. As he expected, the car exploded, the fires quickly giving way to the blood red magic of the Amulet. In the center of the aura was Faris, his eyes flashing red with the same furious fire. For once in his life, he was pissed. He sent out both chains, bursting with rage-filled magic. As the blast of dark magic and metal approached him, Daniel moved out of the way at lightning speed, appearing behind his adversary. He sliced at Faris with all his might, forcing him to the ground and leaving a giant gash that bled red darkness. Daniel moved again to where his enemy lay broken, and started hacking away at him.
"THIS! IS! FOR! EVERY! LIFE! YOU'VE! TAKEN! YOU! PIECE! OF! S@#$!" he screamed as he sliced Faris to ribbons. Eventually, he stopped, lowering his scythe while still breathing heavily with rage as he stood over his kill. Faris was leaking blood red petals of darkness from his whole body...and yet he laughed.
"Bravo, Daniel, simply bravo," he mocked, even as he lay dying. "But let me ask you: what does it matter? Death means absolutely nothing to me. I will keep coming back again and again. So walk away, knowing our battle, you're victory...was absolutely worthless!" He laughed maniacally as he dissolved into red darkness.
With him gone, Daniel finally calmed down enough to revert back to normal. Almost on instinct, he turned his body and scythe into astral mist, and floated back up to the edge of the gorge. There, he finally took the time to collect himself from the battle. He looked back the way the train had come, and saw a silhouette in the distance, coming closer. He walked toward it as it approached him, until it finally got close enough for him to tell what it was...a familiar mint-colored mare.
"Are you okay!?" Lyra asked, concerned. "I blacked out, and the next thing I know, I'm on the ground, and the train got torn up, and-"
"You're alive!?" Daniel asked back in disbelief. "Oh thank Luna!" He let his legs give way in relief. When Lyra asked what happened, though, his mood became somber. "I tried to save everypony...and it was all for nothing. I'm...I'm just glad somepony survived. I'm glad I wasn't completely worthless."
Daniel and Lyra just rested there for several minutes, mourning the ponies whose lives were needlessly ended.