The Mask of Death
“So, how long do you think you’re going to stay?” Roseluck sat in the flower shop’s office, her daughter just across the desk, sitting on the lunch couch.
“I don’t know.” The Death cloak had made its appearance, draping itself over the back of the couch where Rose sat. The scythe, on the other hoof, was still absent. “Just... staying in that castle is so lonely, you know? The only real friends I have there are Cloud and Luna. Obviously, they can’t exactly come out to lunch with me, and on top of that, I don’t think the guards trust me at all. If my job wasn’t so important, I don’t even think they’d tolerate me.”
“Well, you’re always welcome here.” Roseluck walked around the desk and gave her daughter a half hug. “You’re family, and while I don’t like your job, I won’t turn you away.”
“Wait, what about Chrome Sky?”
“Your roommate? I think she got a new housemate.” Rose’s ears drooped, drawing her mother’s mouth into a frown. “I know, hun, but you kind of disappeared for months, and you two could barely afford that loft. There was no way she could pay rent herself.”
Rose didn’t reply, so Roseluck continued. “Anyway, I need to get back out there, it’s almost time for Daisy to leave, so I need to cover until close. I turned your room into a guest room back home, but we can change it back if you’re planning on staying.”
“Alright, I guess I’ll head home. See you after closing.”
“Need a key?” Roseluck asked, opening the door to the shop proper.
“Nah.” Rose quickly dawned the Death cloak, flashing her mom a grin that wasn’t hers. “I’ve got a universal key.”
*****
Inside Rose’s foalhood home, not much had changed. The front door still stuck, the table in the front room still creaked if you put too much weight on one corner, and the sink was still backwards--the cold tap gave hot water, and vice versa. However, not all was the same.
For instance, Roseluck had moved her secret candy stash and now Rose had no idea where it was. But, more importantly, the room she had called her own for years was nothing like she had left it. The walls were covered in a new wallpaper, covering the bare walls she had taken to writing on for around a year. All of the posters that had adorned the walls were gone, and even the bedspread was different.
With a sigh and a flick of her neck, Rose tossed the Death cloak onto the bed. She then moved over to a bench her mother had placed in front of the window, replacing the mountain of pillows Rose herself had preferred. She gazed out of the window, at the streets of the town she used to call home. Ponies passed below, not knowing they were being watched. Rose could still pick out most of them by name, and the rest by occupation and memory, even if a name didn’t attach to the face.
How long Rose spent simply ponywatching, she didn’t know, but it only seemed like a few minutes before the front door creaked open. “Rosey? I’m home,” her mother called from downstairs. “Rose?”
“I’m in my room,” she replied, not turning from the window. The creak of wood gave Roseluck’s position away as she stepped through the door. “I’m not liking what you did with the place,” Rose said, turning to face her mother. “I miss my wall scribblings.”
Roseluck smiled. “Yes, well I didn’t think that guests would like it that much.” A silence settled over the duo, not exactly uncomfortable, but not wanted either. “Listen, about your friend...”
“I don’t want to talk about it,” came the soft reply. Rose turned away, unwilling to look out the window any longer.
“Rose, it’s been two weeks.”
The white pony swallowed hard. “I know.” Just as Roseluck was about to reply, her daughter felt a tug in the back of her mind. “I’ve got a client.”
Roseluck’s ear twitched. “Rose, we need to talk.”
“Later,” Rose replied, donning the Death cloak. “We’ll talk later.”
“No, we need to now.” But it was too late. Before she even finished her sentence, Rose had touched a wall, and was gone.
*****
The portal deposited Rose just outside of her house, out of view of the window. The Instinct told her the client was nearby, so she had decided to simply walk instead. It was a simple matter to jump to the outside of the house, then merge into the crowds of the town she used to--and hoped to still--call home.
She walked from the place she now called home, past the 4 house tenement where she used to live with her roommate, past the home where Chrysanthemum used to live before moving. Through the town center she walked, past the fountain and busy market, careful to stick to the fringes and avoid contact with anypony. Leaving the open market behind, Rose passed the Golden Oaks Library and various permanent shops on her way out of town.
Outside of town, Rose set off following her Instinct, which currently had her along a well-traveled dirt road that she, and almost everypony in the whole town, knew. It was the road to Sweet Apple Acres, the road that was consistently crowded with ponies during Cider Season.
The Instinct didn’t tell Rose who she was going for, so she wondered to herself to the background noise of her hooves on the dirt. It was a short-lived musing, for it could really be any of them. The most likely client would be old Granny Smith, Rose thought. But it could just as easily have been that a tree fell on Big Macintosh, or Applejack, too. For that matter, it could be Apple Bloom, or one of her friends, caught in one of their crazy stunts gone wrong.
Rose’s ponderings ended long before her destination came into focus. She hoped, for the smallest of seconds, that the orchard wasn’t her destination, that it was further beyond, but her hopes were dashed when a scream echoed across the treetops. Rose shook her head and took off into the farmyard, towards the dying scream.
It was a short gallop, with a couple misdirections--echoes aren’t known to be the best signals--but eventually, Rose found herself in a clearing, deep within Sweet Apple Acres. She looked both left and right, ensuring she was alone before moving to the lone treehouse sitting in the distance. After climbing up the ramp and peeking through a crack in the door, Rose stepped inside.
The treehouse was obviously the hangout of fillies. The inside was bare wood, though drawn hearts hung in a banner across the far wall and two pictures of a flying cyan pegasus hung around the room. Directly to the left of the door was a window, curtained with floral print. Straight across, under the banner of hearts, sat a small table, filled to the edge with vials of various bubbling liquids. Probably not chemicals, hopefully not chemicals, but whatever it was, it had exploded, and the result was plastered all over the walls, the window, and the little yellow filly lying in the middle of the room. It lent the room an acrid stench, and the smell of burning fur.
As one, three ponies standing over the prone body in the middle of the room turned and looked over at the cloaked pony who just entered. “Who are you,” asked the eldest of them all, the orange mare called Applejack. “What are you doin’ here?”
“I am Death,” Rose replied. “I have come to ease the suffering of--”
“No!” Applejack sprung forward and went to knock Rose straight out of the door, though her hooves went straight through, causing her to coil backwards. “You... you can’t have her!” Her voice was loud, but it was all bravado. They both knew that Applejack couldn’t do anything to Rose.
“Just let me do my job. It will ease her pain.” Not waiting for the response, Rose reached over her back and drew the scythe.
“No, please, you can’t.” The farmpony was begging now, the two other fillies looking at both mares with wide eyes and frightened glances. “Please, mah family has lost so much already. We can’t... Ah can’t take losin’ Apple Bloom too.”
Rose’s gaze flicked down to the two small fillies, one openly crying, the other trying very hard to make it appear like it wasn’t, then over to the window, which the shade had turned into a light mirror. She instinctively flinched at the aged, intense face staring back at her, a face that brought her back to the night before she became Death, when she had been attacked. Sunken eyes over a sharp muzzle stared back at Rose, and she had to resist the impulse to touch a hoof to her face just to remind herself it was nothing but an illusion.
Is this what I am? Just the latest in a line of ponies who do nothing but mindlessly kill? Whether it was real or not, Rose didn’t know, but the face staring at her in the window was grinning, almost revealing in it all. Repulsed, Rose flung the guise of Mortis away with a thought, to the audible surprise of everypony in the room.
“Who... who are you?” Applejack asked, moving closer to her fallen sister.
“I am Rose Petal. Listen, I know it’s going to be hard to hear, but... it’s Apple Bloom’s time. That’s why I’m here.” Applejack shook her head almost violently, stepping between her and the filly. “Listen to me. She’s in pain, and it’s my job to stop that. Let me do my job, and she will have peace.”
“No!”
“I know it’s hard to hear, but look at her.” As though to prove her point, Apple Bloom moaned. “I can relieve her from that pain.”
The farmpony stared down at her sister, allowing enough of a pause for Sweetie Belle to sidle up to the cloaked pony. “What’s going to happen to Apple Bloom?” she asked. Rose looked down at the small filly, and even Applejack shot her a glance.
“Well, my job is to, uh, free her, so to speak.”
“So she would be better?” the filly squeaked hopefully.
“Sort of...” Rose scratched the back of her head. “Look, I won’t lie, Apple Bloom is really hurt. She’s dying, and that’s why I’m here. It’s not her time, but there’s nothing I can do. I’m supposed to take her soul so it can be reborn.”
“B-But she’s our friend!” Sweetie Belle exclaimed.
“She’s a crusader!” Scootaloo added from the side.
“Yeah, she’s a crusader!” the other filly agreed. “You can’t take her!”
“Please...” Applejack butted in, moving to stand next to Sweetie Belle. “Isn’t there anythin’ you can do...?”
“M-My job is to--”
“To take her soul, yeah, Ah got that bit. But can you help?”
All eyes were on Rose, pleading, begging her to leave, or even better, pitch in and help. She looked over the wall before her, to the yellow filly lying on the ground. One slow blink later, and her colors had shifted. The yellow became her mane, red her coat, and she was lying at the bottom of a hill, bleeding into the dry ground.
“Rose,” she whispered in a voice that tugged at the strings of her memories. “Look out for the rocks, right?”
“Don’t talk like that,” replied a young Rose almost in tears, void of both cloak and cutie mark. “Help! I need help!” She fell to her knees, frantically wiping the blood from her friend’s coat. “Come on, Chrissy, don’t do this.” Rose looked up to the top of the hill. Gently taking hold of her friend, she began the slow climb to the top. “I need help!”
“Rose, just leave me here, get help...”
“No! I’m not leaving you here. Help!”
The white pony shook her head, causing the hood of her cloak to slip down past her ears. “I... I can help.” To emphasize her point, Rose replaced the scythe on her back. “But if we’re going to get her to a hospital, I’m going to need some supplies.”
The farmpony paused for a second. “Alrigh’, fine, but no funny business. What’dya need?”
“Uhhh,” Rose spun a hoof in circles in the air, mirroring her spinning thoughts. “We’ll need a cart, to get her to the hospital. A towel or something to wipe off what’s left on her, and some water for her to drink probably wouldn’t hurt.”
“Jus’... jus’ stay right here. I’ll be right back. Don’t hurt her!” Applejack charged out of the door, galloping down the ramp before taking off towards the farmhouse as fast as she could.
Sweetie Belle sidled slowly up to the cloaked pony crouched over Apple Bloom. When she didn’t notice, Sweetie gently tugged on her cloak. With a shake of her head, Rose knocked the hood off of her head and looked down at the filly. “Yes?”
“So... is Apple Bloom going to be okay...?”
For what felt like the first time that day, Rose smiled. “Yeah, I think she’ll be fine.” Just then, a creaking sound filtered through the door, still standing ajar, followed quickly after by the clop of hooves on wood.
“Ah’ve got the cart, the other stuff’s inside it,” said a breathless Applejack.
“Alright, help me get her to the cart,” replied Rose.
“Move.” As soon as the other mare stepped aside, Applejack moved to Apple Bloom’s side and gently picked up and placed the filly on her back. “Go on home,” she said to the fillies. “Ah’ll tell ya when AB is safe, alright?” The two fillies gave their grudging consent, so the two mares carried Apple Bloom outside, and placed her in the cart.
Rose wiped down what burns she could see on Apple Bloom and made her drink some water. “I’m going ahead to the hospital, to alert the burn unit. Can you handle the cart yourself?” She stepped around to the front of the cart and looked at Applejack.
“Yeah, Ah can manage, but how are you goin’ ta get down there faster than me?” the orange mare replied, moving to the center of the cart’s harness.
“Trade secret,” Rose replied with a wink before slipping into the transport of Death. The tunnel dropped her off outside of Ponyville General Hospital. She rushed inside, projecting the influence of her office before her. Several screams accompanied the click of the door closing behind her. “Burns.” Rose said to the quivering nurse behind the front desk. “Alert your burn unit, there’s a filly coming in here and she’s hurt bad.”
“I-I what? W... What?” the poor nurse spluttered, “I don’t understand.”
“Listen to me!” Rose roared, pushing the full force of Death right onto the poor mare. “A filly, Apple Bloom, burned herself, possibly with boiling liquids or chemicals. Alert your burn unit so you can treat her.”
“O-Of course,” the nurse replied, “but where is she?”
“Ah need help!” Applejack shouted, bursting through the doors with Apple Bloom across her back. “Mah sister, she’s hurt bad!”
The nurse cast a questioning glance at Rose, who nodded. “Of course,” the nurse said to Applejack before turning her head to face down the hallway. “I need a doctor!” the nurse shouted, moving back around the desk to take a closer look at Apple Bloom. Two doctors pushing a gurney quickly arrived and loaded the filly before taking off down the hallway they came from.
“Is... is she gonna be alright?” Applejack asked the nurse.
“Fortunately, yes,” replied the other pony with a smile. “I have seen ponies with worse burns walk away. It might hurt for awhile, but she will be fine.”
Applejack stumbled and fell into a chair, hooves unable to support her. “Thank you,” she said, turning to look past the nurse. “Huh?”
The nurse cocked her head. “What?”
“Did you see a pony in here? Black cloak, scythe across her back?”
“Yeah, she’s right...” the nurse looked back over her shoulder, and gasped. “Where’d she go?”
*****
“Mom!” Rose charged into the house, head on a swivel. “Mom, are you home?”
“Honey, what’s wrong?” Roseluck poked her head from around the door to the kitchen.
“Nopony has to die, mom,” Rose replied, not slowing down in the slightest before charging into Roseluck for a bone-crushing hug. “Nopony has to die...”
“Oww, Rosie, calm down, and what are you talking about?”
“A filly, Apple Bloom, the pony I just had to take as a client.” Her mother gasped, but Rose carried on regardless. “I didn’t take her, mom. I saved her. I saved her!
“Nopony has to die, not if I can help them.”