Chapter 4: The Reaper’s Line of Sight
“Here we go,” Fluttershy said before starting her mission. Clouds floated above and below her as she flew out, but this time there wasn’t any lightning in the sky around her. “So, what’s our mission this time?”
“How much do you know about Reapers?” Celestia said. “From the Underworld?”
“Aren’t they the ones that always freak out and call in their little Reapettes?” Fluttershy asked. "I get scared just thinking about them…”
“Anyway, they have a fortress near the entrance to the Underworld in Reaper Valley.”
“There’s a place called Reaper Valley?” Fluttershy said incredulously.
“Of course,” Celestia said. “So named because of the many Reapers that live there.”
“And we have to go there, don’t we?” Fluttershy said anxiously. “You wouldn’t have mentioned it if we didn’t have to go there.” Celestia fell silent for the next few moments and declined to answer. Instead, she used the power of flight to send Fluttershy through the clouds and toward the ground. Her silence convinced Fluttershy of what she was dreading; that she was being sent into the Reaper Fortress. “Will you at least tell me why you want to go to a place crawling with Reapers?”
“I’m trying to find another one of Nightmare Moon’s commanders, Chrysalis.”
“The goddess of disaster and calamity?” Fluttershy said. “That Chrysalis?”
“Oh, so you’ve heard of her too,” Celestia said as she brought Fluttershy’s flight to a steady altitude above a wasteland. “She’s currently residing in the Labyrinth of Deceit. However, some force in the Reaper Fortress is obscuring the labyrinth’s location. I can’t find it, not even with my all-seeing Eye of Celestia.”
“Wait, if you have an all-seeing eye, why can’t you see Chrysalis’ location?”
“Because of my slightly botched laser eye surgery.”
“Wait,” Fluttershy said quizzically, “you, the goddess of light, got laser eye surgery to fix your all-seeing eye?”
“No, I had laser eye surgery to receive an all-seeing eye.”
“You’re messing with me, aren’t you?”
“Constantly,” Celestia said. “Regardless, your mission is to infiltrate the Reaper Fortress.”
“Um… o-okay,” Fluttershy murmured as she flew over the wasteland. There weren’t any Underworld troops nearby, at least not yet, but that only made her more nervous about her mission. After a few moments, Fluttershy noticed dozens of small lights off in the distance. “What are those red lights?”
“Are they…” Celestia said. Suddenly, lasers started to shoot out from each of the red lights and point in Fluttershy’s direction. “Reaper eyes?”
For every laser aimed in Fluttershy’s direction, three Reapettes flew toward Fluttershy. Within seconds, the Reapettes were swarming her. “Th-This is really bad!” Fluttershy stammered.
“We need to find you a safe route,” Celestia said.
The light around Fluttershy’s wings shone more brightly, and she quickly turned around and flew back. Looking behind her, she saw over a hundred Reapettes chasing her. She focused on her weapon, a pair of Fairy Orbitars floating above her shoulders, and fired at the Reapettes. Fortunately, the Reapettes were relatively weak enemies, and a shot from either orbitar was enough to take one down. She took out as many Reapettes as she could while Celestia guided her toward a ravine.
“Down there is your only option,” Celestia said just before sending Fluttershy into the ravine. “This ravine should take you to the Reaper fortress, but it’s tight, so be careful. If you get stuck, I won’t have time to get you out.”
Several rocks projected out on both sides of the ravine, and Fluttershy was forced to fly around them. She panicked when one rock came at her and just barely avoided crashing into it. “If you’re worried about me getting stuck, then wouldn’t it be better to slow down a little?!” she said nervously.
“We have to make every second count while you’re flying,” Celestia said. “If anything, we should be going faster. Here, let me help.”
“Uh-oh,” Fluttershy whispered. Almost immediately, she started accelerating through the ravine. If her heart was already pounding before, she could feel it racing now as each rock became more difficult to avoid. Each near miss was quickly followed by another, and it was about to get worse once Fluttershy saw some enemies emerge from the rock formations ahead of her. She attacked several Monoeyes and Syrens, preventing them from trying to attack her, but the distraction brought her within feet of another rock before she noticed it. She quickly ascended to dodge it, with only her hoof banging against it.
“Is that a windstorm up ahead?” Celestia said. “Hold on!”
“Ah!” Fluttershy hadn’t yet noticed the strong wind current up ahead, and by the time she looked up, Celestia guided her right into it. The force of the wind slammed into her and briefly sent her spinning out of control, but Celestia quickly righted her orientation and kept her going.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Celestia said. “It’s only wind. At least it’s not poisonous or acidic, then you’d be in real trouble.”
“That’s easy for you to—ow!—say!” Fluttershy said. She fired at a Wave Angler while trying to avoid the rocks, but was hit by one of the Wave Angler’s attacks. “I’m risking life and limb here while you’re sitting comfortably back in Skyworld…” Almost immediately, Fluttershy realized what she had said. “Oh, I-I’m sorry! I didn’t mean that! I’m just under—”
“It’s alright, Fluttershy,” Celestia reassured her. “But remember that I’m not just sitting here leisurely. I am controlling your flight path after all.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” Fluttershy said. She flew through another windstorm, this one just as strong as the last one. She made a sound between a grunt and a squeak, but flew through it unharmed. Looking to her right, she noticed an opening in one of the sides of the ravine.
“You’re heading into a cave now,” Celestia said as she led her into the opening. “Be careful.”
Fluttershy quickly noticed that this cave was a more favorable route. While it was much narrower than the ravine, it was mostly a straight path, and she didn’t have to avoid any rock formations jutting out from both sides. She quickly flew out of the cave and found herself flying in the ravine again. Several Shrips and Syrens appeared, but Fluttershy quickly defeated them. The rock formations were appearing less frequently and the walls of the ravine were becoming smoother, but more enemies were appearing ahead of her. Monoeyes and Syrens appeared around her, Shrips flew ahead of her and tried to tackle her with bladed heads spinning, and Handoras crawled along the ravine’s walls while trying to shoot at her.
“There are many enemies up ahead,” Celestia said.
“Yeah, I kind of noticed,” Fluttershy said anxiously while firing back at the Underworld monsters. She dodged two shots from a pair of Gyrazors, but a Mik suddenly flew in front of her and lashed her with its tongue. Fluttershy recoiled in pain, but continued flying and defeated several more enemies. Soon, she reached the end the ravine and stopped. Monoeyes and Miks appeared from above and surrounded her, and she struggled to dodge them while firing back.
“This looks like a dead end,” Celestia said. “There must be a way out. Hm…” She searched around the ravine while keeping Fluttershy in midair. The ravine was supposed to lead to the Reaper Fortress, but there were multiple forks in it and numerous caves that led to dead ends. Because of its labyrinthine appearance, even Celestia was having trouble navigating it. Meanwhile, four Shrips had flown down to attack Fluttershy, each one carrying a Mik. Fluttershy fired at both enemy types, but had to quickly dodge two bombs thrown at her by two Daphnes. “Down there!” Celestia said, directing Fluttershy to a cave below. “I’m getting you out.”
Fluttershy saw a narrow beam of red light running in front of the cave’s entrance. Recognizing it as the gaze of a Reaper, she started firing at it while Celestia sent her toward the cave. She couldn’t hit the Reaper in time, but Celestia was able to guide her past the monster’s gaze without being detected. Eight Handoras appeared ahead of Fluttershy, but she managed to quickly shoot them all down before flying out of the cave and into another ravine. However, she heard several chirps just seconds after flying out. Unfortunately, a Reaper was watching the area ahead, and when she flew into its field of vision, it summoned three Reapettes to attack her.
“The Underworld forces are a lot more organized than they were before,” Fluttershy said. She took out the Reapettes and killed a third Reaper up ahead.
“I doubt these underlings would have managed it own their own,” Celestia said. “It’s a sure sign that Nightmare Moon is back in power.” Fluttershy flew into another cave, taking out ten more Handora’s before flying out the other end. When she emerged, a Wave Angler and three Minos appeared ahead of her. She killed the other three monsters, but barely avoided a shot from the Wave Angler. Celestia guided Fluttershy into another tunnel, this one having smoother walls than any of the previous ones. “You’re almost there!” Celestia said. Fluttershy noticed a light at the end of the tunnel and quickly headed toward it. “Three… two… one… contact!”
When Fluttershy reached the end, she saw the Reaper Fortress. A large defensive wall in the shape of an animal’s spine stretched around the structure, except for its front entrance. The façade was adorned with what appeared to be the skulls of monsters, and several massive formations towered behind the fortress, all modeled in the shape of rib bones. The barren earth and dreary atmosphere around the area only added to the Reaper Fortress’ macabre appearance. Fluttershy approached the structure, ready to land within a few seconds, when two red lasers suddenly shot at her from it.
Celestia quickly pulled Fluttershy up to avoid the lasers, but several more lasers fired from the surrounding walls. She frantically guided Fluttershy away from the fortress as dozens of laser beams fired. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was absolutely terrified as each successive laser came closer and closer to hitting her. Under any other circumstances, her wings would have folded at her sides and locked in place. Even if she could fly on her own, she’d never be able to unfurl them unless she could calm down. However, thanks to the power of flight, Celestia was in full control of Fluttershy’s wings and kept her in flight.
“There’s no chance of getting in from above,” Celestia said as she brought Fluttershy away from the Reaper Fortress. “You’ll have to break through the front.”
Fluttershy flew down to the end of a wooden bridge that lead to the front entrance. A Reaper was patrolling the area in front of the bridge, but Fluttershy took it out with her Orbitars. She apprached the fortress again, this time flying just above the wooden bridge. The lasers fired again, but they all aimed too high to reach her as she flew toward the Reaper Fortress and crashed through its front doors.
* * * * * * * * * *
Fluttershy was lying on the ground just inside the entrance to the Reaper fortress. “Fluttershy, are you alright?” Celestia asked.
“I… think so,” Fluttershy said as she slowly stood up.
“Then let’s get moving,” Celestia said. “The force obscuring Chrysalis is deep within this fortress.”
Up ahead, Fluttershy saw the blade of a guillotine slam into the ground and slowly rise back up. The blade didn’t extend from wall to wall, so she was able to walk around it. She turned right and found another guillotine blade. This one extended along the entire width of the path, so she had to run through it at the right time to avoid being bisected or decapitated. Fluttershy approached the guillotine anxiously and stood right in front of it when the blade slammed into the ground in front of her. She flinched at first, but quickly ran through when the blade rose up again.
“Remember that there are going to be Reapers up ahead,” Celestia said. “They may look evil and crazy, but there’s a good reason for that. They are evil and crazy. But they won’t bother you if you stay out of their sight.”
“So I should try to sneak around to get past them?” Fluttershy asked as she walked through a door. She turned left and found a Reaper patrolling a corridor. The Reaper was walking in the other direction, so it wouldn’t see her until it turned around. After working up the courage, Fluttershy moved into the corridor as quickly and quietly as she could and hid inside an alcove on the right. She hid in a corner of the alcove and waited for the Reaper to make its sweep of the corridor. As the Reaper passed by, she tried to keep her heavy breathing as quiet as possible. Fortunately, it passed by without detecting her, and Fluttershy ran to the other end of the corridor and walked through the door. “That was close,” Fluttershy said, her heart still racing.
“Luckily for you, there aren’t very many Reapers here right now,” Celestia said. “There must be a soul harvest going on somewhere.”
“What do you mean?” Fluttershy said as she continued searching the fortress.
“Reapers are soul carriers,” Celestia said. “When a being dies, they take its soul to the Underworld. The earth ponies probably started another war, which means a lot more souls to deal with.”
“Why are they always fighting?” Fluttershy asked. “It’s so sad and pointless.”
“Yes, but we gods fight too. And when we do, earth ponies are always caught in the middle.”
“So this war against the Underworld Army is causing the Reapers to work overtime.”
“I’m the one who should be working overtime,” Celestia said guiltily. “Then there’d be less soul harvesting. Ponies get frustrated, even destructive, when we gods don’t provide for their welfare.”
“Don’t say that,” Fluttershy said. “Everyone loves the goddess of light. You know that. And I’m sure you try your best.”
“Thank you, Fluttershy. Now then, let’s proceed.” Using her magic, Celestia created a pair of rails in front of Fluttershy. The rails were parallel to each other and extended through part of the fortress.
“What are these?”
“Those are grind rails,” Celestia said. “I’ll try to put these in to help you move around.”
Fluttershy hesitated for a few seconds before eventually hopping onto the grind rails. Almost immediately, the magic within the rails flowed into her and carried her along them. “Whoa…”
“It beats walking, doesn’t it,” Celestia said. “This will lead you into the courtyard.”
Fluttershy jumped off once she reached the end of the rails. She walked back into fortress and made her way through one of its hallways. At the end of the hallway, she found herself in a circular room lined with blue torches, As soon as she entered the room, a bipedal, cyclopic monster jumped in. The creature had purple skin, wore a blue robe, and held a mage's staff in one hand.
“An Eggplant Wizard,” Celestia said.
“At what?” Fluttershy asked. The monster threw a bomb at Fluttershy, but she quickly jumped out of the way.
“If you get hit by one of its bombs, it will turn you into an eggplant.”
“That’s… um, I don’t know what to think about that…” Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots from her orbitars followed by several smaller shots.
“Trust me, that’s not a good thing,” Celestia said. “If you get turned into an eggplant, you won’t be able to attack. My magic can turn you back into a pony, but it’ll take a while. Until it does, you’ll be completely defenseless.”
“Oh… that actually is a bad thing,” Fluttershy said. After one more pair of charge shots, the Eggplant Wizard was killed and Fluttershy moved on. She went through the door and found herself standing on a walkway above the next room. Two pendulum blades swung across the center of the walkway.
“Watch out for those blades and be careful not to fall,” Celestia said.
Fluttershy carefully approached the blades and ran past the first one after one of its sweeps. However, a Shelbo, a spiked green shell with a large purple mouth, appeared behind the other pendulum blade. It opened its mouth and tried to suck Fluttershy in. Fluttershy turned around and galloped, trying to get away from the monster that was pulling her toward it. Unfortunately, her hoof slipped on the edge of the walkway and she fell down into the room below.
“Fluttershy, are you alright?” Celestia said as Fluttershy struggled to stand back up. “Don’t panic, but there’s a Clubberskull nearby.” Fluttershy looked around at the room she had fallen into. The dungeon was littered with spike pits and pools of strange purple liquid, and there was a skull twitching at one end of the room. “It’s trapped for now, so I suggest leaving it alone. It’s one dangerous enemy.”
Fluttershy backed away from the creature and was about to turn around when a Zuree, a ghostly monster with hooked red claws, suddenly lunged at her. Fluttershy whimpered and jumped back, firing a pair of charge shots at the same time. One of the charge shots killed the Zuree, but the other shot past it and struck the Clubberskull. As soon as the shot made contact, the lower jaw separated from the rest of the skull. A giant red and purple heart emerged from the skull with two grotesque arms attached to the upper and lower jaws.
“The Clubberskull’s loose!” Celestia said. “Get out of there!”
Fluttershy frantically searched the room for a way to escape. She found a door at the other end of the room and galloped toward, but it refused to open for her. She could hear the loud thumps on the ground as the Clubberskull quickly crawled toward her on its arms. Fluttershy started panicking and knocking on the door, but it still refused to open. The Clubberskull was closing in on her, and she looked around for another way out. Seeing a circular pad on the ground, she decided to test her luck and galloped toward it. Unfortunately, the Clubberskull reached her and struck her with one of its arms. The impact threw her off the ground into a wall, and when she dropped back down, she fell into a pit in front of the locked door. However, instead of being impaled by spikes, Fluttershy landed in another room beneath the Clubberskull. Despite having woken up the monster, she had been lucky enough to find the only pit in that room that wasn’t a spike pit.
“Fluttershy, are you hurt?” Celestia said.
Fluttershy groaned as she slowly stood back up on her hooves. “I-I can still walk,” she said. She placed her hoof on her head and tried to recover from what just happened. When she opened her eyes, she found herself standing in front of a familiar shaft of light. “Celestia… I think I found another Zodiac Chamber.”
“I think you’re right,” Celestia said. “This certainly wasn’t the best way to find one of them, but you’re still lucky to find it. Go in and take the weapon inside.”
Fluttershy walked into the shaft of light and entered the Zodiac Chamber. This one looked identical to the first one, but as she approached the other side of it, a different weapon appeared, the Taurus Arm. The weapon, resembling a silver gauntlet with long, curved horns attached to it, vanished as soon as she picked it up, ready for her to use in a future mission, and she quickly exited the chamber. Now that she had the second Zodiac treasure, she had to get back to her mission. She found another circular pad, much like the one in the Clubberskull’s dungeon, several feet away from the Zodiac Chamber's entrance. She examined the pad for several and was about to place her hoof on it.
“That’s a jump pad,” Celestia said. “It’ll catapult you to a set location. You found one earlier when that Clubberskull attacked you, and it should lead you back to that walkway.”
As soon as Fluttershy stepped onto the jump pad, it threw her into the air and onto a ledge above it. She turned around and found a doorway nearby. The door closed behind her as she stepped through it, and when she looked around, she realized that she had just stepped through the locked door from earlier. Trying to shake off her irritated thoughts, Fluttershy found the other jump pad and ran toward it. The Clubberskull was sealed away again in the exact same position she had found it, and she had no trouble reaching the jump pad and getting back onto the walkway.
The Shelbo was still at the end of the walkway, and when Fluttershy got past the first pendulum blade, it opened its mouth to suck her in. Fluttershy fired a pair of charge shots into the Shelbo’s mouth, causing it to close again. Fluttershy continued to attack with continuous fire at its lips, eventually killing the monster.
“What do you think of those orbitars, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked. “I notice you’re using them for this mission.”
“It’s weird how they just float there,” Fluttershy said after running past the second pendulum blade.
“Orbitars are physical manifestations of divine protective powers,” Celestia said. “While they can be used to attack, they were originally created to defend.”
“Defend?” Fluttershy mused while exploring more of the fortress. “Well, since they float above my shoulders, I can move more easily with them.”
“They do allow unimpeded movement while you’re shooting with them, which is one advantage they have over other weapon types,” Celestia said.
“Are any of the other weapon types hard to carry around?”
“Hmm… Out of the ones you haven’t used yet, I find it hard to imagine you carrying three of them.” Celestia examined the Fairy Orbitars that Fluttershy was using. They resembled glass figurines with wings, bodies, and heads with no facial features. One of them was purple with red dotted eyes while the other had blue eyes and an aquatic color to its body. A mischievous idea came to her, and she decided to use her magic to perform a little ventriloquism. “Hello?”
“Hmm?”
“Hey!”
Fluttershy looked up at one of the orbitars above her. “A-Are you talking to me?”
“Listen!”
“What is it?”
“Hey! Listen!”
“I’m listening…”
“Hello?” Fluttershy looked up at the other orbitar, thinking that she heard it speak as well. “Hey!”
“Listen!”
“I am listening,” Fluttershy said, starting to get a little annoyed. “What are you trying to tell me?”
“Watch out!”
“Huh?” Fluttershy said as she walked into another room of the fortress. When she turned her attention away from the orbitars, she saw a Reaper patrolling the room. Fluttershy squeaked and ran out of the room. She looked back into the room she had just run out of. There were two Reapers patrolling it, and she would have to sneak past them. She walked back in the room and made sure she knew where the Reapers were. Once she decided that she could sneak in between their shared patrol route, she quietly crept up behind one and kept her distance.
“Hey! Listen!”
Fluttershy was startled when she heard that voice again. “Shh! They’ll hear you!” she whispered. “Please be quiet!”
“Watch out!”
“Hey! Listen!”
“Be quiet!” Fluttershy hissed. “Are you trying to tell them where I am?”
“Hello?”
"Watch out!”
Fluttershy was too busy pleading with her orbitars to see where she was going, and she accidentally bumped into one of the Reapers. The Reaper stumbled a bit, and when it turned around, it saw Fluttershy standing behind it. Fluttershy jumped back when the Reaper swung its scythe at her. She ran toward the next room while the Reaper summoned two Reapettes and chased after her. Fluttershy ran through several rooms trying to lose them, all the while hearing voices from the two orbitars above her. Eventually, she managed to escape the Reaper and found herself in another room within the fortress.
“Hello?”
“What do you want from me?” Fluttershy said angrily. Unbeknownst to her, three Paramushes were dropping into the room. “You almost got me killed. You haven’t shut up since you started talking. If you have something to tell me, then tell me!”
“Hey! Listen!”
“Watch out!”
Fluttershy looked around and quickly dodged an attack from one of the Paramushes. All three of them had landed on the ground and were running around. Fluttershy tried to aim at them with the orbitars, but they were moving too erratically, and she had to keep dodging their attacks.
“Hey! Listen!”
“Hey! Listen!”
“Not not!” Fluttershy growled. “I’m busy!” Fluttershy saw two Octos appear in the room and fired at them. She managed to take out one of them, but was blindsided when a tripedal tortoise monster, Tortolunk spun into her, throwing her into a wall before she landed on the ground. The voice coming from the orbitars kept going, making Fluttershy angrier as she struggled to get back on her hooves.
“Hello?” “Hey! Listen!” “Hey! Listen!” “Hey! Listen!” "Watch out!” “Hey!” “Listen!” “Hello?” “Hey! Listen!”
“SHUT UP!”
As soon as Fluttershy’s outburst echoed throughout the room, everything changed. Any monsters in the room that she hadn’t killed were frightened off and ran away. The orbitars were now completely silent, and Fluttershy was standing in the middle of the room, still panting and fuming after being tormented for so long. “Is something wrong, Fluttershy?” Celestia asked, holding back a chuckle. She had temporarily cut off her telepathic link earlier so that Fluttershy couldn’t hear her chuckling to herself.
“Yes there’s something wrong!” Fluttershy said. “These orbitars must be broken or something. They keep talking to me and they won’t shut up or leave me alone.”
“I don’t know how to tell you this, Fluttershy,” Celestia said, “but I’ve been watching you this entire time, and I haven’t heard any voices except your own.”
“… Wh-What?”
“Look, you’ve been through a lot these past few missions,” Celestia said. “I recommend you get some rest when you come back to Skyworld. I’m sure that you’ll be just fine after you get a chance to relax.”
“Thank you, Princess Celestia,” Fluttershy said.
“Don’t thank me yet,” Celestia said. She created a pair of grind rails leading up to a door at the top of the room. “You still have a mission to complete.” Fluttershy hopped onto the grind rails and rode them up to their destination. Celestia watched as she jumped off the rails and found an elevator in the next room. ‘Maybe I’ve been too hard on Fluttershy lately,’ she thought. ‘I should get her a gift to cheer her up. But what can I get her?’ Celestia thought about it for several seconds. She knew she had to consider this decision carefully. After all, Fluttershy didn’t like the last gift she had given her at all. ‘Oh I know! I remember seeing this cute little pair of orbitars once. I’m sure she’ll just love them! Now if only I knew where to find them.’
The elevator reached its destination and Fluttershy stepped out of it. Searching the immediate area, she found three passages leading from the elevator. She checked the left one first and discovered, to her delight, a pool of steaming water at the end of it.
“Well, well,” Celestia said. “It appears that this place is equipped with some hot springs.”
“Um, Celestia?” Fluttershy said hopefully. “Would it be any trouble if I got a little R and R right now?”
“Of course not,” Celestia said. “But are you stepping into it wearing that tunic again?”
“Shh, can’t talk now,” Fluttershy said shortly after walking in. “Hot spring.” She sat down and spent the next few minutes lounging in the hot spring, letting the warm water and steam soothe her aching joints and wounds. Celestia watched as her army captain relaxed in the water. The orbitars were still hovering above Fluttershy’s body, and Celestia was briefly tempted to repeat her recent prank. She quickly decided against it, and watched as a look of contentment spread over Fluttershy’s face.
Minutes later, Fluttershy stepped out of the hot spring and walked back to where the three paths branched off. The one on the right had a Reaper at the end of it, so she decided to take the middle path instead. She slipped past two more guillotine blades and found a large door at the end of it.
“You’re closing in on the force that’s obscuring Chrysalis’ location,” Celestia said.
“I figured the evil lighting wasn’t just for show,” Fluttershy said, noting the red lights that illuminated the door and surrounding area. The door opened as Fluttershy approached it, and she stepped through it, feeling ready to take on whatever was behind it.
* * * * * * * * * *
Fluttershy ran into a hall deep in the Reaper Fortress. At the center of the hall was a Reaper taking a leisurely scroll. The Reaper turned to notice Fluttershy come in and started chirping, much like any other Reaper. But this one didn’t chase after her, and instead a bright light filled the room. Within a few seconds, this Reaper grew in size and towered over Fluttershy.
“Wh-What is that thing?!” Fluttershy stammered while stepping back.
“That Great Reaper must be the one who’s hidden Chrysalis’ Labyrinth of Deceit,” Celestia said.
Fluttershy continued backing away from the monster and accidentally stepped onto a jump pad. “Eep!” she whimpered while being tossed off the ground and onto a balcony above.
“This area is split into two levels,” Celestia said, “so just switch levels depending on how it attacks.” The Great Reaper slammed its scythe onto the balcony, sending out waves from its blade. Fluttershy ran along the balcony to avoid the waves and fired a pair of charge shots at it, hitting its chest. The Great Reaper responded by shooting lasers out of its eyes. The lasers struck Fluttershy in the chest and knocked her back. “Those aren’t just flirty looks coming from the Great Reaper’s eyes.”
“Let me guess,” Fluttershy said, placing a hoof on her singed chest. “They’re death rays.”
“In a nutshell,” Celestia said. “And if you get hit, it’ll summon Reapettes.” Fluttershy noticed five Reapettes appear around the Great Reaper and fly toward her. “That Great Reaper has quite the evil eye.”
“How can you make puns at a time like this?” Fluttershy muttered while shooting the Reapettes.
“The same way that I can make small talk with you while you’re on a dangerous mission.”
“I really wish you’d stop doing that,” Fluttershy said while firing a pair of charge shots at the Great Reaper’s head.
“You still have another twenty-one missions left, Fluttershy,” Celestia said. “I suggest you get used to it.”
The Great Reaper placed the blade of its scythe parallel to the balcony and prepared to swing it across. Fluttershy saw a set of stairs leading to the lower level and ran toward them. By the time the Great Reaper’s scythe swept across the balcony, she was halfway down the stairs and took the opportunity to fire another charge shot at it. The charge shot struck the Great Reaper’s eyes, causing it to stumble back and place its hand on its face.
“I think I’ve found the Great Reaper’s weak points,” Celestia said. “They’re its head and little toes. Targeting the head should be more effective.”
“Um, right!” Fluttershy said as she ran back up the stairs. She fired another pair of charge shots at the Great Reaper’s head and dodged another series of waves from its scythe.
“It looks like you’re making progress,” Celestia said.
“This isn’t as hard as I thought it would be,” Fluttershy said while firing a few shots.
“I think the Great Reaper might actually be less troublesome than any of the regular Reapers,” Celestia suggested. “Probably because this one is so slow and cumbersome.” The next two charge shots cracked the Great Reaper’s head, just above the eyes, causing a light to pour out of it. “Now, finish it!”
“Right!” Fluttershy aimed for the light and fired two more charge shots. The Great Reaper stumbled back after getting hit and clutched its head before falling to the ground. Fluttershy briefly watched as its body faded before she turned and walked away. “You know what, Princess Celestia?”
“What’s that, Fluttershy?”
“Even though I almost died, I’ve really enjoyed our time together.”
“Aw, you poor thing,” Celestia said. “You really need to make some friends.” Fluttershy was slightly taken aback, but she smiled and gave a quick wink before Celestia extracted her. “Now let’s go find Chrysalis.”