Let's Make a Deal

by Knight of Crows


Desert Rose

Morningstar POV, 1,000+ years ago

Leaving the town of Red Rock took a little more time than intended, there were a few other deals I wanted to make first. New clothes that don't rip or need to be washed was kind of a must have that I didn't get sooner. I also needed alchemical knowledge for the field and immunity to mind altering magic. I had received some combat and medical magic a while ago so I should be set on my way to a town called Silver Springs.

Some of you might be wondering how I make these deals, call me a bad person, but let's just say foals will believe just about anything. I 'gave' one suspected disabled pegasus the gift of flight in exchange for directions of all things. Moving on the trip to Silver Springs was about a day and a half away from Red Rock, dangerous too. Those timberwolves are fucking persistent, relentless even as they're burnt to a crisp, manticores aren't much better, one almost stung me! Anyway I got a ride with a friendly couple on a carriage, a griffon and a pony at that, so the next few hours went by fast enough.

Arriving in town the first thing I did was buy something to hold me over until dinner, I eat enough to not be hungry, but not enough to be slowed down by it. After buying some vegetables for some soup later I got myself a room at the inn, stored the food away, put a few shock runes on the door, and looked for some jobs. The first thing I looked for was a bounty board, the money is nice, but taking a small pay cut for something like night eye is much better in the long run. Finding what I was looking for was easy thanks to it being on the other side of the street from the inn.

Wanted Dead or Alive: Blood Thorn

Race: Unicorn
Gender: Stallion
Appearance: Dark red coat, yellow eyes, dark grey mane, often seen wearing barbed armor
Cutie Mark: Cluster of thorns dripping blood

Crimes: Theft, murder, arson, ponynapping, banditry, treason.

Reward: 250 bits + 10 for each of his accomplices

See either Moon Rose on Sweet Honey Acres or Sergeant Blue Flame at the guard station for details.

I think I'll go see this Moon Rose first, I wouldn't expect a civilian to be the person to talk to about this unless it's personal and/ or she has something useful.

"Excuse me." I said to the inn keeper.

"Something I can help you with?" He asked.

"Could you give me directions to Sweet Honey Acres?"

"Make a right out the door, take your third left, go across the bridge, and take the second right after that. It's a straight path from there."

"Thank you."


Finding the farm was easy enough. Looking around I see a filly, probably no older than 7 being taught by her father on how to properly approach the bee hives they've got. One of the biggest differences between this world and Earth is how much more intelligent animals are, how much instincts don't kick in. I've seen one pony hold several extremely venomous spiders without a care in the world, one even befriended a megaconda! That was a terrifying experience to say the least. Looking at the father I doubt he's Moon Rose, usually appearances match the names and cutie marks. Brown stallion, black and yellow mane, honey pot for a mark. The daughter was a light brown, gold mane, no mark.

"Excuse me. Can one of you tell me where I can find Moon Rose?" I asked making my presence known.

"Who wants to know?" The stallion responded, sending the filly inside. A little concerning, but proving at least one of my suspicions true. I slowly set my bag down before reaching inside it. Just as I found the bounty paper I heard a mare shout from the home.

"Honey Pot, could you bring him inside already?" The mare I'm assuming is Moon Rose shouted to her husband.

"But he cou-" He started.

"If this gentlestallion wanted trouble he would have already gotten it. Now bring him in!" Honey sighed before telling me to enter the farm house with him.

Entering the home I was told by Moon Rose to have a seat as she took her daughter upstairs. She came back down in about a minute. I pulled out the bounty and showed it to them as they took their seats.

"I came to ask about this. I wouldn't expect civilians much less farmers being who to go to about a dangerous criminal like this. I'm assuming it's personal? Maybe some form of help or advice to give?" I asked. Moon Rose started shaking, tears running down her face as she buried her face into her husbands neck.

"Moon left town a week and half ago to visit her sister. On her way back to her home after a few errands one night she saw her sister's home on fire with Thorn dragging her out. She broke free, but was hit in the back by a few arrows killing her. Thorn and his friends saw Moon and would have gotten her too had the guards not shown up. Believing she could be a target now we have 2 guards guarding the farm with 2 more making rounds between here and the town." Honey Pot said doing his best to comfort his wife.

"It is personal then. I'll do it, but I do need something first." Deal time.

"And that is?" He asked.

"I just need you to say 'yes' to what I'm about to say no matter how crazy or stupid it sounds. Humor me."

"Just say 'yes'?" He asked like I was crazy.

"I want to be unable to get drunk, I want the strongest achohol in town, and Blood Thorn's exact location, all in advance. In exchange you keep 50% of the bits you would be paying in the bounty and you keep 50% of the profits made from the possessions of the bandits."

"Is this a joke?" He asked clenching his fist.

"Just say yes."

"Fine, yes!" The second that word came out my bag made a sound of glass hitting something and I saw a trail like clairvoyance in Skyrim.

"I'll be seeing you later, first I want to prepare a few poisons. Be back in the evening or later tonight, bye!" I said getting out of the chair.


Getting back to the inn took longer than it would have had I not forgotten what paths I took. Why I didn't ask for directions I have no idea. The inn keeper let me use his kitchen to prepare the paralytics poison I have in store for the bandits. The process took until after sunset and another half hour of thorough cleaning for this makeshift alchemy lab to be use for it's intended purpose. On my way back to the farm I saw a lot of light, more than one would expect from a farm. Looking through the trees I saw flames, running up I was stopped by a guard with the filly whose screams were muffled by his hands. As I was going to them I heard a scream to behind me and immediately sent back a blast of energy that sent the bandit flying into a tree, killing him on impact.

"Are Honey and Moon alright?" I'm just now getting that.

"No, neither am I right now." He showed me his side and the knife in it.

"Where are the bodies then?"

"In the corn field behind the house." He winced in pain.

"This is going to hurt." I pulled the knife out and closed the wound faster than he could react. He checked himself over and found nothing wrong with him.

"A little warning next time??!!" I ignored him and went to the location of the bodies, their eyes still had color so that's good. I went back and saw the filly broke away from the guard. I stopped her, put a barrier sound bubble around us, and knelt to eye level with her.

"Hello, I don't think we introduced ourselves earlier. My name is Morningstar and I am going to help you, but I need two things from you." She struggled in my grasp.

"Let me go! I need to see mom and dad!" She yelled.

"And you'll see them, but do these two things for me real quick and you won't regret it. Just say 'yes'. I want Soul Eater, in exchange I'll revive your parents and avenge them."

"YES! PLEASE LET ME GO!" She shouted as loud as she could. I lowered the barrier as a dark wing shaped sword with a cyan colored eye appeard in my hand. I willed it to disappear as I ignored the guard and went with the filly to her parents.

The thing about resurrection is there are certain conditions for it. The color in the eyes determines whether or not it's even possible, the more color, the better the connection. Also as part of an agreement I made with Death after I revived a kitten that I need something to draw from. A life for a life in a way. I can see other peoples life spans, but they only count natural causes. I take some of the remaining life spans of creatures nearby.

The guard has 30 years left if he isn't killed and the filly has another 73, much longer than the average pony considering they live to 50-60 tops. Seeing 2 bandits barely alive on the other side of the field who will live for another 12 years total I took their remaining life spans and killed them, 6 from the guard, and 23 from the filly. Having 41 years to split I revived them and gave both parents 20 years and 6 months to live. After a few seconds they sprung back to life and were immediately tackled by their daughter.

"You will speak nothing of what just happened!" I said to everyone. I tapped the filly's shoulder to get her attention.

"And you still owe me. So tell me, what's your name?" I asked.

"Desert Rose." She said through the crying.

"Alright that's all. Now if you'll excuse me I have a few bandits to turn into manticore food." And with that I took my leave, following the trail to Blood Thorn.


I followed the trail for a few hours before finally seeing someone, two guards right outside a small wall, both indicating this is a camp instead of a moving group. Neither of them could see me so I had the perfect chance for this. Stepping out of the woods I greeted them the only way they would positively respond to as they held their weapons at the ready.

"Excuse gentlemen, do you have a moment to speak of the God of Tits and Wine?" I asked with a straight face holding the drinks from earlier (it's wine by the way). They lowered their weapons and started laughing before someone from the inside came out to see what was going on. Spotting me he immediately drew his weapon.

"Pull yourselves together! And you, how do you want to die tonight?" He asked. I had the perdect response.

"Well... At the age of 80... On my bed... With a belly full of wine... And a mare's mouth around my cock." I also said with a straight face.

"Heh... Hehehe... Hehahahaha! Oh you'll fit right in here! What's your name?" He asked putting his weapon away.

"Why, you can call me Morningstar." He wrapped an arm around my neck.

"Well Morningstar I can promise the fellas are going to love you!" He said leading me into the camp. All according to plan.

(Time skip)

We're all sitting by a fire having an amazing time. Of the 34 bandits I've seen 31 of them have drank enough to be paralyzed in a minute from now and the drunk ones will die. The best part is Blood Thorn is one of the to be paralyzed and the other 3 are sleeping.

"I once brought a bee hive and a jackass to a brothel-" One of the bandits dropped his wine and fell, others soon following his example.

"Oh, there it is. About time." I said standing up.

"*cough* What did you do?" Blood Thorn asked noticing nothing wrong with me.

"I poisoned all the wine, some of you are now dead or dying while others are just paralyzed. I drank the antidote before drinking any in case I got unlucky. And now you'll die for your crimes." I said summoning Soul Eater.

"YOU'LL P-" He tried, but the rest of the paralysis kicked in. I took the opportunity to kill his 3 sleeping friends before killing him and the others, saving him for last.

"You could have been so much more, shame you chose the life of a traitor and a bandit." I said piercing his heart and making my way back to town.


Present time

"So you actually revived them, but because of an agreement with the Reaper himself you needed to draw from the lives of others and killed Blood Thorn after that?" Celestia asked, not happy about how someone is resurrected.

"Yes, though with the exception of animals and criminals guilty of crimes punishable by death or life in prison I only take enough years that they can still live full lives. I once revived a still born foal a few hundred years after that, but I had to take a total of about 40-50 years from both parents give or take a few. They would have lived into their 70s, but I took 20 some years from each and gave them to the foal who immediately cried and clung to it's mother."

"You are aware that borders on black magic right? You could still be charged with recklessly using an illegal magic." Celestia warned me.

"The difference between that and my resurrection is I transfer pure life, black magic takes, corrupts, and destablizes it in some cases which is one of the reasons necromancy exists." I said.

"And Soul Eater?" She asked.

"It's just a weapon from a fictional series back home, it's not really any different from a sword except for what it's made from, but even that doesn't make it any more or less dangerous." I showed her the sword and she immediately got out of her chair ready to defend herself as Luna and 2 guards burst through the door.

"Relax, I'm just complying with a request I knew she was going to have. I'm not going to hurt anyone who doesn't attack first." I flipped the blade and held the hilt to Celestia who took it. After inspecting it for a minute it disappeared.

"Would you allow us to study it." She asked.

"I wish I could say yes, but I don't want anyone learning how The Deal works from it nor do we want the weapons industry to drop because of weapons like this. Not only that, but unless I'm holding it, it will disappear on it's own in a minute."

"Do you not trust us?"

"I don't trust the people working in or around the castle, every royal family has servants who are more loyal to a noble and neither of us want word of my gift reaching the ears of power hungry individuals." Happened once already, not again.

"They are all sworn to secrecy on such matters." She tried to convince me.

"They can still break that oath or whatever, unless you use a geis which last I checked is black magic, I won't trust any of them. The only reason I trust you and your sister is because I've lived long enough and seen enough history to know I can trust you to not take advantage of me!" We all took a moment to calm down before Celestia sat back down and the others left the room.

"I'm sorry." She said.

"It's fine. Anything else you want to ask or are we done?" I asked leaning back in my chair.

"Just one. Under the name 'Pureblood' who is an ancestor of my nephew, you have 'ascension' and 'family'. What exactly does that mean?" Bad, but fun memory.

"Oh, that douchebag. I enjoyed what I did to him, and you will find it has a fitting end."