//------------------------------// // Chapter 1: Life and Responsibility // Story: Once More, with Feeling // by Amaranthine Thought //------------------------------//             “Twilight Sparkle, awaken.”             Twilight groaned as she woke once more.  She was not feeling well, the idea of failure haunting her, even in her sleep.             “Don’t want to…” she groaned as she rose.             “Twilight!” she heard snapped at her in a new voice and she gasped.             She looked and just for a second saw something other than Death near her.  It looked like Celestia, but then it was gone before Twilight could truly see it.             “What..?  Death, what was..?”             She hesitated again, noticing that Death looked… different.  It was still resembling her, but it was almost as if it had been involved in a fight.  Nothing had changed physically, but she could swear it looked… hurt.             “Twilight Sparkle.” it said, using her voice as if nothing had happened.  “I am once again in need of your service.”             Twilight blinked.  “I… I don’t understand.  Didn’t I..?”             “You did.  And I am here to offer you something new.”             Twilight shook the remaining sleep from herself.             “I said I don’t want to.  I don’t want to do anything like that ever again.”             “I know.”             “And you said that you can’t give me life.”             “I did.  I can’t.”             “Then…”             “I can.” a deep voice said from behind her.             Twilight gasped again, and looked behind her.             Behind her was a white alicorn, looking almost just like Celestia.  Almost.  The only true difference is that that alicorn was male, his mane and tail golden, almost as if they were made from light.             Twilight gaped at him.             “Do you have something to say?” he asked, his voice deep, but once again, so very similar to Celestia’s own.             “What..?  Who… I don’t…”  Twilight shook her head.  “You look just like princess Celestia.  Are you… family?”             He chuckled.  “We are not relations.  Not by blood anyway, but I suppose she can be considered a daughter.”             Death walked next to the stunned Twilight.             “We have a deal.” it said, looking at the alicorn.             “We do.” he said, suddenly serious and frowning.  “I did not forget.”             “Deal?” Twilight asked, her curiosity beginning to overcome her shock.             “Nothing for you to…” Death started.             “I offered a favor in exchange for… Death’s help in a few things.  I have my own enemies, and now, I have a few less.  The light must be preserved, and knowledge helps immensely.”             Twilight nodded slowly.  “…Who are you… Prince?”             He smiled at her and shook his head.  “I am no prince.  I am merely… Lux.  Speak without fear, I never did hold to the entire idea of decorum or proper bearing.”             “I… Lux… I mean… Why are you here?  You can raise me?  I can live again?”             “Yes.”             “Really live?  Breathing and feeling and having a heartbeat and everything?”             Lux gave Death a look.  “What did you convince the poor girl was ‘life’?”             “It does not matter.”             Lux sighed, shaking his head.  “Yes Twilight, I can do all that.  Even from the ashes.  It just has a few… drawbacks.”             “Like what… Sir Lux?”             “Just Lux, I told you.  And…” he hesitated for a moment, looking awkward and then sighed.             “One of the very first things you should know is that Celestia is not going to like this at all.  Neither will Luna.”             “What?  How is me being alive going to upset the princesses?”             “I can raise you… but… it won’t be as ‘you’ strictly speaking.  Your mind, your life, not your body.  To be specific…”             “I will need to make you an alicorn of the stars, and that influence will be felt instantly by my daughters.  It’s a lot of power, power that… you don’t know how to use, but it should be fine.”             “…What?” Twilight asked weakly, simply stunned.             “He needs to grant you immortality Twilight.” Death stated.  “And with that comes great power, power that is not learned immediately.  Your form will be remade, but it will be in Lux’s image, and not your own.  A new life, just a greatly changed one.”             Twilight looked at Death, back to Lux, and then back to Death.             “I…”             “You are not sure.” Death said.             “…Yes.”             “It is not much, but it will be true life.”             “…Why?  Why are you so… determined to get me to live?  To get me to… gather souls?”             Death was silent for a long time as Twilight watched it.             “You do not need to know that.”             “I think I do.” she said, frowning. Death fell silent once more, and the pair stared at each other, Death forever impassive and Twilight frowning.  After a moment she heard Lux huff in frustration.             “For light’s sake, just tell her.”             Death glared at Lux.  The first time Twilight had seen it with any real expression.             “Not like it will hurt, even if you do like your secrets.  I am sure Twilight can keep something to herself, can’t you girl?”             Twilight nodded and Death stood still for a long moment.             “Fine.”             Lux seemed to vanish and everything seemed to get far darker.  Darker until the pair stood atop bones.  A seemingly endless pile of bones.  Death looked at Twilight again, standing right in front of the distressed unicorn.             “Look around you Twilight.”             “Bones… Nothing but bones… What is this place?”             “This is The Grave.  This is the final resting place of a very special kind of soul.”             Twilight stared at him, and for a moment felt certain that something under her shifted.             “Look.”             A soul rose from the bones, but it was… foggy.  A wisp of smoke, and nothing more.             “His name was once Fast Cloud.  He left a wife and two children, dying at the age of 45 from a bad fall.  An unlucky pegasus at best, with a quick death.  Few cared about his passing.”             Another came up, the same as the first.             “Bright Thoughts, a unicorn who thought he could change the world.  He spoke with dragons, and was your world’s greatest researcher of them, until he stepped into the wrong den and was burned alive.  Slowly.  He was 31, and even today, nopony knows how he died.”             Another.             “Strong Legs, an earth pony colt.  He died at six, from illness.  Too young to even realize his own death.”             Another.             “Full Heart, his mother, age, 27.  Died of heartbreak leading to a semi-successful form of suicide.  She ate poisonous plants, but not enough to kill her.  She lost the will to live later on, when others would have recovered.  It wasn’t fast, nor painless.  Her husband survives alone, and he somehow trudges on.”             “Death stop!” Twilight cried, tearing up from the thought of it.  “Stop telling me those things!”             “There are so many more.”             “Why are you showing me this!?”             “This is why I need you.  The souls you see here are formless.  Wisps.  They cannot think, know, or act.  They will never find rest.  They no longer know what rest is.”             “When a soul isn’t guided by a reaper, it remains in the mortal plain.  But that only lasts for a time.  Some last longer than others, but they all fall to the same fate:”             “Forgetting.  Forgetting everything, until they become nothing.  An existence with nothing to itself.  And each soul that suffers this… is my failing.”             “Every soul that forgets is a soul that I have failed.  I exist to grant them rest, but they are beyond it.  I cannot help them.  The only thing I can grant them is their own bones, something for them to hold onto, lest even this form be lost.  I have failed each and every one.  And I haven’t been able to guide a single Equestrian soul to rest for millennia.”             Twilight stared.  “Why not?”             “The elements of harmony prevent anything but a pony to guide a pony soul.  I have billions of reapers, but not one can touch a pony soul.”             “I watched countless ponies fall to this fate.  Until I could stand it no longer.”             “I broke one.  I took a soul, shattered him in my grasp and remade him.  Equestria’s first reaper.  A broken puppet that is not sufficient.  More and more are added to the pile every day.”             “I can do no more on my own.  But then you came.”             “You Twilight Sparkle, are the only soul that has ever found its rest without guidance.  I need you.  I need you to guide every last pony soul to rest, and stop my pile from growing.”             “But you need a form to do that.  Even a ghost would suffice, but I need you to be willing.  I need you yourself, and not a slave to my own desires.  You said no unless you lived, so I animated your body and called that life.”             “When you fell to that form, falling prey to the loss of self that comes with undeath, I knew I had failed again.  Failed worse.”             “You came back, angry and hurt.  I thought that you would turn away from me, and go back to rest once more.  But you… You thanked me.”             “Never before has that happened to me.  You gave me a chance to try again.  You… gave me a ‘second chance’.  And I was not going to fail again.”             “I found a power that could raise you, and offered favor in exchange for his help.  Lux cannot make you your own body, but it will be a body.  True life once more.”             “You are the only hope for countless souls Twilight Sparkle.  You are my only chance to stop failing, and bring ponies to their rest.”             Twilight was speechless.  It was near… incomprehensible what Death had told her.  What it had just said.  Even the bones were hard to believe were real.  So many souls, so many ponies… gone.             She didn’t even waste another second.  If she could stop this from happening any more, then she would.  No matter the cost.               But she did want to know one last thing.             “…If you had told me about this earlier, I would have said yes to the ghost idea.”             “It would not have been pleasant.  And there is a small chance that an ethereal form would not have been sufficient.”             “You don’t take risks?”             “Never.”             Twilight smiled.  “Let’s go back to Lux.  I have a big job to do, don’t I?”             Death nodded, and for just an instant, just a moment…             Death smiled.             Then they were back, next to Lux.  He started at their appearance, and asked, “Well?”             “I agree.” Twilight said, heading over to him.  “But I want to know everything that I should know about this… new life.”             Lux nodded and thought as his horn lit gold.  “As you know, you will be an alicorn.  That means you will be able to fly, be far stronger and more enduring, and that your magic will be vastly increased.  You will have power over the stars; a big responsibility, but I will help.  That way you don’t drop a star on somepony.”             “That can happen?” Twilight asked as she was lifted in a golden aura.             “Very easily.  Now, Celestia and Luna will know when you arrive.  That’s because I must take a part of their power from them, and grant it to you.”             “What?  Why?”             “If a light is ruled, then only one can rule it.  That’s my biggest rule.  There wasn’t anypony to rule the stars until you.  Get it?”             Twilight nodded as Lux began weaving something around her.  It looked like a golden web that swiftly grew too complex for her to make out individual strands.             “Death wants you to collect souls, and that means lots of deathly magic, but you should have some experience with that.  That magic and your magic won’t mix, and you shouldn’t try.  You might cause unintended effects, the best of which would be a star snuffed out, so just don’t.  Death magic for souls, normal magic for everything else, got that?”             “Got it.” Twilight said, her form becoming obscured by the golden strands.             “Next, you cannot tell anypony who you once were.”             “Why?”             “If you do so, the spell will unravel and send you back to Death.  Keep it your closest secret and never tell anypony.  Not even a hint.”             “…Alright.” Twilight said, not really liking that proviso.             “Last thing.  Take a deep breath for me, and I am very sorry.”             “For wh…”             Twilight screamed.  Lux’s spell was just beginning to work, and Twilight felt like she had been thrown into a fire.  Every part of her burned in a heat that was fit to boil magma.             She thought she heard Lux say something, and then a frigid cold overcame some of the heat.  It was just as bad, but the conflict between the two gave her a tiny measure of peace.             You can do this Twilight. she heard Death whisper to her.             “Welcome back to life my… granddaughter I suppose.  I’ll meet you landside!  Keep steady, it will end soon!”             The pain began to worsen, but Twilight managed to smile.  She could feel herself changing, burning, freezing, but growing.  She could feel herself edging closer to life despite pain fit to end it.             She hadn’t been sure about serving Death before.  A second life was desired, but everything else had carried uncertainty and worry that she wasn’t doing the right thing.  She didn’t think that anymore.             Even in a new form, even if she had to pretend to be somepony completely different, she was helping.  Souls were never going to be formless ever again.  Not one would ever suffer that fate, ever again.  Death would never add another pony bone to his pile, ever again.             And it was just possible, just maybe…             Maybe she could have another chance.  A real one this time.  Life, and not just animation.  She couldn’t wait.