Behind the Scythe
Rose Petal crouched down behind some bushes, listening to the wind whistle through the Everfree Forest. She’d only just barely made it into position in time, now she just had to pull off some very... specific tricks with ponies she hadn’t met. Her eyes glanced down to where she knew the scythe rest. If only it could be made a little less sharp; after all, it was used to separate souls from bodies...
She tensed as the sound of foals began to fill the air again. Her scythe slowly lifted up into position in the bushes. Now, according to the plan, any second now the Guide would be appearing, and stopping right in front of her.
“Okay, is everypony ready?” A mare’s voice said. Rose peered through the bushes, eyebrows raising as she recognized Twilight Sparkle slowly meandering over to where the Guide was to stand.
“Let’s go in a single file line here,” she said after the foals quieted down. “This is an old bridge, but don’t worry. If anypony falls, I’ll catch you.”
Then she kicked the bush Rose was hiding behind, the signal to start.
Making sure to shake the bush, Rose waited until one of the foals turned before snaking her scythe out, and looping it around Twilight’s chest. She winced as she felt the blade bite down, adjusted the grip just a little and pulled.
“Miss Twilight, look out!” the foal shouted, drawing more attention over.
“Run! To the castle!” Twilight shouted before Rose pulled her into the bush. The two waited until the last foal made it across the bridge before Twilight pulled out a small pack of bandages from her costume.
“Sorry,” Rose said, pulling back the hood of her cloak. She offered to apply the bandage, and with Twilight’s approval, wound the cloth around the front of her barrel and behind her forehooves.
“It’s okay. I didn’t expect a sharp blade to not cut.” Twilight pulled her costume back on and smiled. “Thanks. Good luck in there.”
Rose nodded and headed towards the castle, waiting until Twilight was out of sight before jumping into the shadows.
She appeared in a back room, a walkway situated above some faux-plaster that housed a tunnel of some sort. A few steps away, a big red X notes her first entrance. Before it are a few slits cut into the material, allowing her to see into the tunnel below.
According to the notes, she’s to smash a hoof down into the X when a foal blocks the light from the view slit.
Luna’s voice booms over the courtyard and Rose sighs. It’ll be awhile until anypony stumbles into her trap. Rose stowed her scythe and settled in to wait.
This isn’t too much different from sitting in the flower shop, to be honest. Just, instead of waiting for her mom, she’s now waiting to terrify a poor little foal.
When Roseluck asked her to Ponyville, is this what she had in mind the whole time?
After just a couple of minutes, Rose started to get a little antsy. Luna knew that she could teleport, but did the architect? She rose to her hooves and started down the little walkway. Surely there was a door, or a peep-hole, or something.
The walkway ended at a wall with a little, almost comically placed, black sliding bar. Humoring the oversized hoofhold, she reached up and pushed the slide aside. Placing her eyes as close as possible to the wall she could look out into the main hall, where her targets were currently examining the cage.
She slid the peephole closed, and went back to her waiting spot. Only a few minutes later, the light flickered over the indicator slot. Rose counted until three then thrust her hoof down through the weakened ceiling.
Sharp pain blossomed across her hoof. Rose bit her lip and ripped the appendage up, ducking out away from the new hole in case somepony looked up there. Whatever little demon was crawling through the tunnel hit her!
It was so on.
The plan called for her to walk through the back tunnels back to the main hall, but that wasn’t necessary. With a tap of a hoof, she was away, into the next litle ready room.
A little light flicked on next to her, the sign that the main door had been opened. Rose slowly crept out of her hiding space, making sure the door was shut tight behind her, and stepped right to the edge of the shadows.
Under the peak of her hood, she could just make out the three foals trying to figure out what to do next. She saw one stash the tunnel key into his camera bag, and noted that as the target. The scythe practically hummed as she cocked it back over her shoulder.
“My... key...” she croaked, wincing as the sound scratched up her throat.
“Away from that thing” the orange filly shouted, spinning on a hoof and taking off down the hallway. Her friends followed soon behind. Rose, however, decided to move at much more leisurely pace. Close enough to be seen out of the corner of an eye, but not by much.
At least, not until they made it into the sitting room. Technically, the plan called for her to slip into another passage, and jump out when they left the sitting room. That was before the little knight one hit her hoof. Now it was personal.
She popped into the door quick enough to throw her scythe. It barely missed hitting one of the foals who stopped short, making her wince, before slicing through the candles. Stepping into the room and shutting the door plunged them all into darkness.
Well, it plunged the foals into darkness. Thanks to her Office, lack of light wasn’t a problem for Death. Clear as day she could see the foals huddled in the middle of the room. Making sure to step more loudly than necessary, she walked to pick up her scythe, then meandered around the room, enacting violence on the furniture.
Luna probably wouldn’t be happy.
“Man, I really hope none of you have to sneeze,” the orange one whispered. Rose nearly bit her tongue in half trying not to laugh.
When the foals were about halfway across the room, Rose ceased her attacking, and stomping. She tiphoofed around behind the knight, the one who hit her hoof, and leaned in as close as possible. “I want my key.”
The poor foal’s whole body seized up for half a second, then he screamed.
Then the damn camera clicked. The bright flash made Rose recoil, and by the time she could see again, the three were bolting. Rose shouldered her scythe and charged after them, only stopping to nick the key on the table. Time for another change of plans.
The three terrified foals led her on a wild chase through the castle. It wasn’t hard to keep up, but it was hard to not catch them too early. She was just far enough back that, when they ducked into a broom closet, she very nearly went by. Then thought better about it and walked past anyway.
She crouched, just on the other side of the door, grinning when the door peeked open. Rose slowly moved over to the edge, then thrust her skeletal face in the gap, right in front of the pony at the door.
“Boo.” she said, jumping back and kicking the wall when the chaos started, vanishing into a different part of the castle. She found herself in a room of floating windows, colored by Luna’s distinctive magical aura. Another pony resided in the room as well, occasionally consulting much neater versions of the haunt blueprints.
Knowing her appearance could be startling, Rose quietly lowered her hood, dropping the visage of Death, then opened and shut the only door into the room. The other mare still jumped, and spun around quickly,.fixing Rose with her light green eyes.
:”Oh, Miss Rose Petal. I didn't realize you were up here.” She frowned and consulted the map. “You’re an awful way from your next post.”
“Yeah, sorry. I spooked the foals pretty good, figured I had a minute, so I just popped in to recuperate. Besides, we need a new place to hide this.” Rose brandished the metal key.
The Planner’s frown deepened. “That was supposed to be a fakeout key in the sitting room. Why do you have it?”
Rose shrugged. “Seemed like fun. I wanted a more... personal run in with them. Sorry, but I didn’t catch your name. Miss...”
“Cheerilee,” she said, motioning Rose over with a magenta hoof. “Come on then, let’s figure out what to do.”
The two poured over the map, making and discarding plans. The route they settled on was much more roundabout, and required more shuffling, than either had initially planned. They would have to seal off the third challenge, after Rose gathered the key, then open a wing of the castle that had been partially rebuilt.
“You know, this might actually work. Good thing you can teleport, huh?” Cheerilee said. Rose sputtered answer, but both were distracted when the door opened. “Hey, Twi.”
“Hello Cheerilee, Rose Petal,” Twilight said, walking into the room and making a beeline for the window currently showing the foals. They currently wrestled with a wire hanger and a hole. “They took it well. Glad I didn’t have to step in.”
“Well, I probably don’t have too much time left,” Rose said. She donned her hood and stepped back towards the wall.
“Good luck!” the two mares said before turning to the window, and each other.
Rose flit around the castle, stopping by the next room, and letting the wolf-pony know they could head back. She took the key and headed upstairs, stashing it in the chosen room before moving to start filling in corridors and doorways. She would funnel the foals to her, then chase them back to the main chamber.
Key placed on nightstand, various restoration tools stashed, other pathways blocked. Rose picked a comfortable spot and settled down to wait.
Again.
This was starting to become a recurring theme.
She tapped a hoof for a few minutes before realizing a major flaw in the plan: she had no idea when the foals would show.
With a defeated sigh, she lifted the scythe and left the room. Just in time, too. As the door shut, she turned and caught a cardboard knight as he darted back past the wall. The skull mask she wore grinned as she continued walking, turning a corner and waiting.
She could practically count down to when the foals entered the room with the last key. Rose spun around, back towards the room, and bit down a curse as she saw the two other foals spot her, then hurry into the room. Brandishing her scythe, Rose started forward, eager to enter before they could slip back out.
For effect, Rose pushed the door open much harder than necessary, wincing as the metal latch gave way. Her gaze swept across the room: missing key on the nightstand, a subtle flash from a stack of boxes, a fluttering tablecloth, and gently shaking hay.
It was almost a perfect repeat of the sitting room. She hissed, “my key...” before stomping around the room. She stopped first by the bed, before slashing through the nightstand. The hay started shaking harder.
Rose leisurely made her way around to the crates. To the foals’ credit, it was the best hiding place of the three. If it wasn’t for the shine of his camera lens, Rose never would have seen it. She made a show of standing over him before moving out of sight of all three, back around towards the door and the bed.
The scythe leveled itself at just over the halfway point of the bed. A little reckless? Maybe, but as Rose’s scythe hummed through the air, slicing hay and a helmet poof, the payout was worth it. She had a couple of seconds of terror on the face of the young knight before the tablecloth was tossed over her eyes and something charged into her side.
Playing nice, Rose fell over.
“Run!” the pony over her said, before three sets of hooves tore off through the open door. Next came the hardest part of the plan: predicting the foals and funneling them back towards the middle. Thankfully, she’d already memorized what parts of the second floor were available.
Rose touched the nearby wall and popped out just in time to brandish her scythe at the approaching trio. She chased for a short moment before grazing a wall and heading off their next predicted turn.
Needless to say, it was a long and tiring few minutes.
Her breath came in gasps as their frantic chase neared its conclusion. This bit had been hard to plan, as there was neither a designed way down or time to make one. Because of that, she walked as slow as possible, always making sure to keep an eye out, and a hoof ready to step down should a foal need saving.
She nearly did so when the orange filly and the one with the camera jumped to the chandelier, and once again when the knight did as well. The fixture fell, and Rose couldn’t help but gallop forward, wanting to ensure that they made it down safely. They did, so she made herself scarce.
Three keys found, one candy cage opened, mission accomplished. The final part of the plan was to reopen the main gates, and she headed there happily. Twilight and Cheerilee waited in the final secret ready room, though the former was halfway out the exterior door to meet with the Princess.
“See you back in town,” Twilight said, though whether to her or Cheerilee, Rose didn’t know.
As Twilight left the room, Cheerilee turned to Rose with a frown. “You let them jump off the balcony.” It wasn’t a question.
Rose pulled back her hood and dispelled the skull. “I mean, I didn’t let them do anything, they just kind of did it.”
“You could have moved faster and stopped them.”
“That defeats the purpose, don’t you think?”
Cheerilee stood her ground, ears pulled back. “And if they got hurt? Then what?”
“I was close enough to stop them. They had hold on that chandelier, it’s fine.”
The teacher hummed and fell silent. They could hear the foals dragging the candy down the long entry hall, time was running short. “I want to thank you.”
Rose cocked her head to the side. “Hmm?”
“Nightmare Night has always been important to Twilight and I, even before we started dating. When she wanted me to get involved this year, I didn’t know what we could do to top the Test of Courage they put on last year. We may have planned it, but you pulled it off. Thanks, Rose Petal.”
Rose donned her hood again, hearing the foals draw nearer. “It was fun. Same time next year?”
Cheerilee nodded as Rose opened the door to the entry hall. “I’ll have Twilight send you the plans.”
“Nah, I’ll come visit,” she said before striding into the entry hall, stepping in front of the door while the foal trio was only a few feet away. They stopped dead in the tracks, eyes growing wide at the sight of her.
Technically, the plans called for some big elaborate thing, but that was likely covered by riding a chandelier down ten feet. Rose simply nodded, then stepped aside, opening the doors with a burst of magic.
It was hard not to laugh as the foals skirted past her, doing their best to stay out of the range of her scythe. They were pretty far off, though. It was cute. They made it through the door, then bolted towards where Luna and Twilight stood, by the gate of the castle.
“Greetings little ponies,” Rose heard Luna say before shutting the door.
The cloak slipped off, back to wherever it went when Rose wasn’t wearing it. Maybe this night off was good for her after all.
As long as she made it back to Ponyville to spend time with her mom.
Rose smiled, and touched the wall.