Twilight awkwardly sat at the table in silence, with the still sniffling colt seated across from her. She had finally managed to get him up off the ground, and to stop crying. He was currently wiping his eyes on his now-damp cloak, while slowly taking small sips from the glass of juice she had given him. "So..." She attempted to start, scratching the back of her head. "You're Death."
"Yeah..." The colt responded awkwardly. He clearly was embarrassed from crying in front of a stranger like that, but she wasn't going to bully him for it. "I'm Death. Aspect of Death, if you want to use my full name. I'm in charge of making sure souls go to where they're supposed to go when ponies die."
"Shouldn't you have come like... days ago? I died like, on Tuesday." She asked, attempting to sip from the glass of water in front of her, only for the fluid to pour back out the open wounds on her back, leaving water stains on the chair behind her. Oh well, Spike could mop that up later when he woke up.
"I'm supposed to wait at least two days for the soul to pass on on its own. If it doesn't, I'm supposed to come down and take it There myself." He mumbled, taking another sip of his juice.
"There?" She inquired. "Where?"
"There." He replied.
"There." She parroted incredulously.
"You know... There. There. The place where souls go when people die. There!" He said, tilting his head to the side like an adorable puppy. "There."
"Oh! There!" Twilight nodded, while silently taking notes on a piece of paper under the table. At last, proof of an afterlife! She would write a paper on this and get so many research grants! Maybe she could go to There. And back again!
"That's my job... or at least, that's supposed to be my job. I'm still new, so I'm on probation for three centuries." The colt mumbled nervously. "I've only been doing this for a couple hundred years, I started back when the old Death finally retired. I can't believe I messed up during my probationary period. I'm so getting fired for this..." The colt was beginning to sound more and more like a nervous part-time new hire at Hayburger rather than the embodiment of a philosophical concept.
Twilight gently patted his head. "It's alright, it's not your fault. I did die, but I got better. I'm an undead now. A lich."
The colt scrunched his nose. "Undead? Lich?" He mumbled, flipping open a small binder that he pulled out from underneath his cloak. Squinting his eyes as he tried to read the words, he tilted his head back and forth. "Oh. That makes sense. Your soul isn't in your body right now. It's in your... uh... fill... feel.... filli..."
"Phylactery?" Twilight offered.
"Yeah." He said, nodding his head adorably. "Which means this is outside my job description. Which means I might not be fired!"
Twilight gave the young colt an encouraging smile. "Well there you go. That's good news, right?"
The colt grinned and took a big celebratory swig of his juice. "Yeah! If I messed up like that in my first three centuries, my big brother and sister would tease me forever! They said I was too young and immature for this job, but that's wrong!"
Twilight chose not to remind him of the fact that he had just cried a tantrum on the floor of his client. "Yeah! You did a good job!" She said, ruffling his mane. "So you have siblings?"
He nodded. "Yeah, big brother Pain, and big sister Disease. They're twins. They pick on me a lot." Twilight's eye twitched.
"I'm guessing they are also... aspects, I think you called yourself?" She inquired, leaning in slightly. "How many of you are there?"
"Oh, I don't know. A whole bunch. We only have a family get together once every decade or so. Last time it happened, uncle Discord spiked the punch, so I didn't get to drink anything but water."
Twilight's eye twitching intensified. "Excuse me? 'Uncle' Discord?"
Death perked up. "Yeah! You know him?"
"We're acquainted. He didn't mention he had family." She muttered with an uneasy smile, mentally categorizing all the things she would interrogate that draconequus about later.
"Huh. Weird." The foal said with a shrug, finishing off his cup. "This is really good juice. Where did you say you got it?"
"Sweet Apple Acres. My friend's family owns it." Twilight offered. How to be a Normal Functioning Member of Society always said you should support your friends occupation when you get a chance. "Do you want another cup?"
"Yes please!"
Twilight handed the colt a paper bag of sandwiches and a SAA branded juicebox and waved him off as he walked out of her castle. He turned back and smiled, calling out to her as he waved back. "Thanks, Ms. Sparkle! You're the best!"
"No problem!" She called back. "Walk home safely!"
"I will!" He shouted, taking a sip from his juice box.
Moments later, a massive fiery hole opened up underneath him. Pained, agonized screams called out around him as he sank down into the ground, leaving a perfect circle of charred grass where he had just been standing. Luckily, it was on some other pony's lawn, so she didn't have to deal with the landscaping required to clean that up. Or rather, Spike didn't have to deal with it.
Speaking of which, Spike had just began walking down the stairs as the colt disappeared, rubbed his eyes as he walked into the kitchen. "Who was that you were talking to this early in the morning?" He mumbled, noticing the large water stain beside Twilight's chair and walking off to get a mop. "It didn't sound like anypony in town I know."
"Oh, that was Death." Twilight replied, walking back into the castle with a smile as she sat herself down and went back to attempting to decipher the book.
The sound of a mop dropping to the floor and a drake's confused shout rang through Ponyville early that morning.