Death
The living world slowly bled back into the senses of Rose Petal, ushered along by the light drip of rain on her coat. With a groan she shifted, trying to keep the drops from hitting her face. Almost to her surprise, nothing restrained the movement. Testing her lack of leash, Rose inched forward on the ground, still with eyes shut, until something caught against her back hoof and jerked her back with a shaky rattle.
“So, you’re awake.” That horrible, familiar voice finally convinced Rose to open her eyes. It took her a moment to reorient herself, seeing that the tops of surrounding treeline were right in her line of sight, stretching their trunks into the ground above her. “I suppose I was hoping that you would not wake up until this was over. Then again, that won’t give Fate--what was her name... Divine Sight?--the show she was wanting.”
After a few moments of tossing and turning, Rose finally managed to turn right-side-up. “Mortis.” In the middle of the clearing, amidst an old, decaying ruin of a house, the cloaked stallion bowed. “Where are we? And what do you mean, the show she was wanting?”
“Maybe my paranoia paid off then,” Mortis continued, ignoring Rose’s questions and motioning to the restraint on her hoof. He slowly walked towards the chained mare, summoning a scythe from nowhere. “Still, just to be safe...”
Rose stared, transfixed, as a single drop of water slid down the scythe’s curved blade. “That... that’s my scythe.”
“Your scythe?” Mortis replied with a chuckle. He looked down lovingly at the piece of metal and wood pointed at Rose’s throat. “This scythe was mine before your town was even thought about. I brought this with me when the original Fate, Twisted Web, came to me offering a job on behalf of the Princesses and the good of life everywhere. This scythe was never yours, you just borrowed it.”
“And you stole it back,” Rose countered, eyes never leaving the weapon pointed at her. “There never was a Shade, was there? It was you. How did you trick Divine Sight into giving my office to you?”
The scythe slowly inched closer to Rose’s neck, until she had to go crosseyed to keep it in her sight. It rested there, so close she felt the cool metal whenever she swallowed. For a few infinitely long moments she feared the blade would move closer, and everything would be over. Much to her relief, Mortis pulled back and returned to the ruins.
“No. Not yet. I will not become what they accused me of,” Mortis mumbled to himself. He tossed a look over his shoulder to the chained earth pony. “Not for you.”
Rose worked her way into a sitting position, ignoring the damp grass. “Are you going to answer any of my questions, or are you going to keep rambling to yourself?”
Mortis turned back around. “Then again, because of you I am now short one soul...”
The scythe swung back around to rest against Rose’s neck. “S-S-Soul? What are you talking about?” She raised a hoof to try and bat at the handle of the weapon. “And would you get that thing away from me?!”
Despite her best efforts, the scythe only pressed closer, biting into her throat. “And waste precious time? I have already waited thousands of years, and I am not a patient stallion.” It only took a moment for Mortis to slide the scythe across her throat. A huge flash of light filled the clearing, and once it cleared Rose Petal was gone.
*****
“Luna! Princess Luna!” Divine Sight galloped through the tiled halls of the castle, ignoring the curious and hostile stares of both nobles and guards alike. Two guards standing in front of a massive door with a moon carving barely had time to get out of the way before the sandy-colored mare barrelled through the door and into the chambers beyond.
From inside the room, a tremendous crash and a startled yelp prompted the two guards on duty to peer into the room, fearing for their ruler in the aftermath of the pony-shaped projectile. Inside, after a little bit of searching, they found the culprit, lying on the bed in a tangle of bedsheets, feathers, and one very disgruntled-looking princess.
“P-Princess are you... are you alright?” one of the guards asked, valiantly trying to withhold his giggles.
Luna flexed her wings hard enough to send Divine Sight tumbling to the floor. “I am fine. Return to your posts.” The two guards saluted and vacated the room, allowing Luna to turn her attention to her assailant. “Now then, what was so important you could not knock?”
“It’s Rose Petal.” Divine Sight righted herself and stood back up. “I was watching the threads, but something is wrong. She’s just... gone.”
Hooves clacked on stone as Luna rose from her bed. “Go, now. See what is going on.”
Divine Sight nodded. Orders received, she reached out with a hoof. Thin threads appeared, spinning lazily around the appendage. Fate pulled back, and the silvery threads sped up, encompassing the mare. As soon as she was covered, the spinning stopped and the thread stretched out before vanishing, taking its passenger with it.
Half a country away, Mortis sat in the middle of the structure, chanting to the dead silent clearing in a dead language known to only two other living ponies. Small flecks of light danced around his immobile form, forming random patterns in the dark ruins. It was easy to see, then, how one stray dot meandering near the treeline escaped his notice, until it turned into a line. From a line it shifted to a string, then a thread, where it begun to spin madly until out popped a mare.
“You...” Mortis growled under his breath.
Over in the treeline, where she thought she was out of sight, Fate gave a little cough and readjusted her coat before stepping into the clearing. She cast her head left and right, searching for a hint of her white coworker. Unfortunately, the only other pony she saw was the black unicorn resting in the shell of a building, amid a tangle of vines dangling from the broken ceiling. Body visibly stiffening, she spoke. “Where is Rose Petal?”
After checking to make sure his spell wouldn’t be interrupted, Mortis jumped from the building, unslinging the scythe from his back. “You? How fitting that you show your face in the moments before I finally have my revenge.” Finally standing in front of his adversary, Mortis bared his pointy teeth in a smile. “Take a seat, enjoy the show. It will be your last.”
The concerned and now slightly unnerved Divine Sight roughly pushed Mortis back. “Revenge against me? What are you talking about, I’ve never wronged you, you deranged spirit.”
Without warning, Mortis swung his scythe. In her desperation to escape, Divine Sight stumbled and fell back on her haunches. Her eyes nervously followed the scythe blade as it returned to rest near its master’s side. “Do not insult me with lies,” Mortis spat. “You stole my Office away from me. You cursed me to mortality long after everything I had owned was gone. Did you honestly expect nothing to come of it? You have brought my wrath on yourself.”
Divine Sight blinked slowly. “I really have no idea what you’re talking about. But since I’m here, I presume you are the one Rose found, not Shade. Tell me where they are, and I might not have Luna drop the moon on your egotistical head.”
“Shade is fine, somewhere. Probably in a hospital waking up from some form of coma. Your precious Rose Petal on the other hoof...” Mortis smiled. “She’s gone, now. Guess she wasn’t Death after all.”
With a sigh, Fate hung her head. “What do you want, Mortis? I need the scythe and cloak so I can reinstate a new Death and clean up this mess you’ve made.”
“I think we both know that Space is just what we need to sort out this little ‘mess’ of mine.”
“Space? What...” Divine Sight’s eyes grew wide as realization hit her. “Whuh, why? What good could bringing Space to Equestria do? She’s probably so out of touch with reality, it would be pointless.”
“I don’t need her, you fool, I need her power. Siphoning off yours isn’t enough anymore, not for what I intend. With the power of Space behind me, though... even your precious princesses won’t be able to stop me.” From the house ruins, another dot of light began to reposition itself, moving towards the two arguing ponies. When Fate thought Mortis wasn’t looking, she reached out towards it, intending to return to Canterlot and warn Luna.
The flat of the Death scythe crashing into the side of her head was all it took to end that plan. With a cry, Fate fell to the ground, clutching the side of her head.
“Going somewhere?” Mortis asked, moving to stand over the injured mare. “No, I don’t think so. You caused all of this, I think it’s only fitting that you’re here when I succeed. Then again...” The point of the scythe swung around to rest lazily around Divine Sight’s neck. “I could just kill you now; eliminate the last variable.”
“K-Kill me? I haven’t done anything to you! I just maintain the skein of life, I don’t even make it! Any problem you think you have is with the Fate of your time, not me.” Divine Sight backpedaled, skidding across the ground on her back until she ran into a tree.
Mortis followed, swinging the scythe in wide arcs that decapitated countless blades of wild grass. “You lie! You speak the same, give the same excuses, you wear the same skin. You are my enemy, Fate, you and the princesses you so blindly serve.” With a thunk Mortis buried the blade of the scythe into the tree behind Divine Sight. “And now, you will pay for your lies.”
The scythe pulled free from the tree with a loud crack. It whistled through the air twice; once on the way over Mortis’ shoulder, and once again on the way to Fate’s neck. Silence fell.
Still backed up against the tree, Divine Sight cracked one eye open.
“Missing something, Mortis?” a voice called from across the clearing. Slowly, Mortis turned around; Fate peered around the body of the stallion. On a small hill across from the other ponies, Rose Petal blew a lock of hair out of her eyes. Across her back rested a cloak--rippling slightly in the wind of Mortis’ unchecked spell--and the Death scythe.
“You! How?!” Mortis roared, looking to his naked back.
“There’s this mare in Ponyville, Mortis. She always says ‘a lady doesn’t kiss and tell.’ I think I’ll go with that.” Rose smirked, pulling the scythe off of her back. “Now, if I’m not mistaken you and I have some unfinished business. Mostly involving the job you stole from me.”
“How are you here? I took your office, and I killed you with the Death scythe. Your soul should be halfway to reincarnation by now!”
“The spell...” Fate mumbled to herself. Mortis growled and lashed out at her with a back hoof, but she was already out from behind him.
Rose Petal started forward, slowly closing the ground between herself and Mortis. She stopped when they were muzzle to muzzle. “You want to know why I’m here? I’m Death. It would do you well to remember that.”
Mortis opened his mouth to speak, but was interrupted by the crack of Rose’s scythe striking him across the jaw. “No more talking,” she hissed, “now it’s time for my revenge.”
Rose swung her weapon, intending to end the fight before it really even began. Unfortunately, Mortis jumped backwards, moving until he was out of range of the scythe. From his position of safety, he launched several bolts of electricity, black as his coat, which fizzled and crackled as they flew across the ground.
Fate watched the bolts strike Rose and fizzle out against the protection of her cloak.
“Is that all you’ve got!?” Rose called. “All that talk about how you were Death before my town was even thought of and that’s it? A few little lightning bolts?”
Mortis bared his teeth and concentrated, sending pulses of energy into the surrounding air. From above Rose, a mighty bolt of pure energy ripped down, tearing the leaves off the nearby trees on its mad race to the mare on the ground.
The bolt struck with enough force to scorch grass near where it struck. In the middle, right underneath the blast, Rose raised an eyebrow. “You done yet?” she called, only infuriating Mortis more.
The unicorn spirit bared his teeth. His magic sought out rocks, launching everything from pebbles to hoof-sized stones towards the white mare. Tired of waiting, Rose charged forward, scythe swinging madly in front of her to keep the rocks away.
They met in a cloud of dust--the rocks Mortis threw at close range instantly vaporizing as they approached their target.
When the dust cleared, the two were standing right on top of each other.
Slowly, they both looked down to see the point of the Death scythe sticking out of Mortis’ side.
A light breeze blew through the clearing, turning Mortis to dust and carrying the remains of his spirit to Eternity.
Rose dropped down onto her haunches and let the scythe fall to the ground silently. Behind her in the ruins, the dots of light slowly winked out, shrouding the area in darkness once again. “Well, that was anticlimactic.”
Slowly, Divine Sight approached until she could reach out and rest a hoof on the younger mare’s shoulders. “Rose, you okay?”
Rose coughed. “You know what? I just clawed my way back out of Eternity, and I... feel like Death,” she said, before coughing again and falling to the ground, unconscious.