//------------------------------// // The Strong // Story: Death in Equestria // by stitch lips //------------------------------// The sun was getting low, in an a couple of hours it would be above the horizon, the day was almost over. Yet at Sweet Apple Acres, Applejack was still applebucking in the orchard. Normally, she would be inside by now helping Granny Smith cook dinner. Instead of She was now working out among the apple trees. She did waste a lot of time in the race with RD. And she did promise to Apple Bloom to help her on her school project. Plus a number of other small problems occurred on the farm. So now Applejack was alone in the orchard, because Big Macintosh was taking a break, and Apple Bloom were with her friends. A couple of worrying thought went thru her head, as she worked in the orchard. 'Place the buckets, kick the tree, collect the apples, and dump them into the cart. Repeat...' Cider season is only a few days away, could we make enough cider for everypony? 'Place the buckets' I'd could ask my friends again to help with make the cider. 'Kick the tree' But they could be busy with their own business. 'Collect the apples' Although we not competin' against those brothers now, so now we don't have to work twice as hard like last time. We'll just work slower and it will be easier. We'll chat and have fun, maybe even get RD to listen to one of Granny Smith's stories. Applejack chuckled at the thought of the sight. 'Dump the apples into the cart' So that could might work out, 'Place the buckets' That takes a load off of my mind, but then there's the wheat fields, 'Missed the kick' "Ah, heyseed." Ever since Discord messed with our farm, some of them seeds are starting to act funny. 'Kick the tree' Twi said that the Elements of Harmony did undo most of Discord's spells on Equestria, but it did miss the spells that were made to activate later. 'Collect the apples' There were reports coming in from across Equestria about strange events, like waterfall flowing backwards, or like pillows, that all of a sudden, started to float up like balloons. "If done what I thought to do in the first place, when I heard Twilight. I would have gotten all of our supplies checked out for those confounded tricks*." Applejack paused to look at the wheat fields. It was full of wheat stalks... in the beginning of August, but they only grow winter wheat. The Apple Family had sown the field a few days ago, it should have stayed the same. A field that had seeds planted in it, but noooo. The next day, the field was full of fully grown wheat stalks. And now Big Mac tells me that the wheat stalks are shrinking. So now we field of wheat that is now growing in reverse, and if we don't harvest them soon the wheat will no longer be mature. AJ was fuming so badly that she did not hear the sad tune that was being hummed nearby. She dumped the rest of the apples into the cart, and started to pull the cart back to the barn. While pulling the cart down the path, she bumped into something dark. This caused the apple cart to tip over, spilling its red cargo on the ground. Death and Applejack had collided into to each other. Furious, Applejack spun around and bucked the thing that bumped into her. "Get out of my way!" Shocked, Applejack just realized that she hurt somepony out of anger. Immediately she apologized, "I'm terribly sorry, I was not fixin' to hurt you, it's just recently we been have a lot of troubles here in Sweet Apple Acres and it was all gettin' to my head. Are you hurt? I'm very sorry." As she looked at the crumpled but strangely blurry figure on the ground. Then the creature stood up and gave her its full attention. Applejack readied to defend herself, as soon as she realized the 'no longer blurry' creature was not a pony. "DO NOT WORRY ABOUT IT, I AM FINE. I KNOW THAT I HAVE A BROKEN RIB, AND THAT WILL HEAL. EVENTUALLY... AND SOMEHOW I BELIEVE THAT IT WAS ALSO PARTIALLY MY FAULT, I WAS NOT EXPECTING TO 'BUMP' INTO ANOTHER PONY SO EARLY." Despite its frighting appearance and its strange deep voice, Applejack hesitated. The creature did not attack her, even though she attacked first. By all rights it had every reason to, instead it spoke to her, it even apologized for bumping in to her. AJ stared at the reaper man, as He looked at the broken rib in His hand. Applejack relaxed slightly but still felt uneasy. "Does that hurt?" Applejack pointed at the broken rib. "NO, ITS DOES NOT HURT ANYMORE. I CAN REATTACH IT LATER," Death answered, as He pocketed the rib into his robe. Slowly, He walked over towards Applejack and her cart. Then Death bent over the fallen cart. The uneasy feeling that Applejack felt disappeared, when He pulled the cart back on to its wheels. "Well you're well mannered for... whatever you are." Applejack beamed, "Now where's my manners, My name's Applejack." She then, extended her hoof to the being in front of her. Death paused, then He bent down and shook her hoof. He answered, "OTHERS CALL ME BILL DOOR..." His felt a sight warmth, when they shock hands. Death figures out that the pony in front of him, had a strong connection a powerful source of magic. Normally, cat, children and magic users could see Him. With a pensive stare and a slight tilt of His head He deduced, that because of this connection, she is able to interact with Him in the first place. So... the cyan one, is also connected to this power. Applejack also felt something, when His hand touched her. It was a cold dark feeling, but it was gentle, yet strangely alien. Judging by the look of Him, there was something that He wanted to ask. "Hey, is there somethin' on your mind that you want to ask?" This snapped Death from His deep thoughts, He replied, "ERR... YES, YES, THERE IS SOMETHING THAT I NEED TO KNOW. WHERE AM I EXACTLY?" Quickly falling back to the plan He framed originally. "You lost?" "NO, I AM HERE.**" "Huh?" "I AM ASKING, WHERE ARE WE CURRENTLY LOCATED AT?" "Sweet Apple Acres?" "I GUESSED THAT," Death looked the sign that was near by. "Oh, you mean Ponyville." "YES" "A town that is close to the Everyfree Forest and Whitetails Woods? In the middle of the land called Equestria?" "YES, THANK YOU VERY MUCH." "You're not from here, I reckon." "YES" "So what are you exactly?" Applejack said curiously. She tried to figure out what He is, but she could only tell that He is a walking skeleton that wore dark robes. "YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW." "Yes I do, I answered your question, at least answer mine," "I AM A FARMER." Death picked up the fallen scythe. "A farmer? You don't look like a farmer." He pointed "FROM THE MOUNTAINS." Applejack gave him a stern look. "You know the the farmers on the mountains use a scythe with a straight handle. Right? And that there you're holdin' is curved, and that's for down here on the country. So stop diggin' yourself into a hole, and tell me the truth." Death sighed, "I AM THE ANTHROPOMORPHIC PERSONIF-" Applejack interrupted, "No, don't try to use fancy talk, just give it to me plainly. " "I AM THE GRIM REAPER," He replied, He had tilted is head back slightly. Death had no face, but the slight angle made His teeth and jaw to angle up. To Applejack, it made Him look like that He had a frown. "Err... What do you reap?" asked the farm pony. "SOULS" "Souls? Like as in the dead?" "YES, I BRING THE DEAD TO THE OTHER SIDE." Starting to understand, "So you're the anthrosomethin' somethin' of Death?" Applejack asked. "But you don't look like the Mare of Death." "THAT IS BECAUSE I COME FROM A WORLD CALLED DISCWORLD." Death stated. "So I take it that your real name isn't Bill Door, but why did that not sound like a lie? Applejack questioned. "IT IS A LONG STORY, I COULD TELL YOU SOME OTHER TIME." Death stood there with His arms raise up, scythe over His head, its blade shining blue. The sky had darken, clouds swirled over head. The air stagnant, and heavy. Everything seemed to freeze. Applejack felt so cold, she could see her breath. The color in the world faded to grey. BUT YES, I AM THE DISCWORLD DEATH, ONE OF THE MANY DEATHS THAT SERVE UNDER AZRAEL, THE DEATH OF UNIVERSES. As quickly as it came. everything when back to normal. Death lowered His arms, He looked at the stunned Applejack and said. "TOO DRAMATIC? ALBERT SUGGESTED THAT I SHOULD "SHOW OFF' MORE,*** SORRY." He bent down toward Applejack, held her head in His hand. "THIS WORLD IS OUTSIDE OF MY JURISDICTION. YOU DO NOT HAVE TO WORRY ABOUT ME REAPING PONIES, I DO NOT BELONG HERE." ... ... ... "AND YES, THERE IS AN EQUESTRIA DEATH, YOU SAID HER NAME YOURSELF, MARE OF DEATH. TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTION." "How did you know that I was going to ask that?" Applejack said in amazement. His response, "EVERYONE ASKS THE SAME THING." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *These tricks were the number of "small" problems that Applejack had to deal with all day. Some of the problems were; The paint they used to repaint the barn turned into disappearing ink, Big Macintosh's old plow became heavily magnetized, and some of the nails they used, would pop back out after being nailed in. Applejack believe that the spells would activate whenever it was the most inconvenient time possible. **it is Impossible for a person to be lost, the place that they are in, is the place that they are. But Its possible for another person to lose you. ***Albert complaint to Death that it took the dead awhile to realize that they are dead. To Albert's surprise, Death asked what He should do about it. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Twilight Sparkle was re-re-reading one of her Daring Do books, when Rainbow Dash crashed right thru her window. Quietly, Twilight closed her book, and waited for Rainbow's excuse for crashing into her home this time. This time however, there was not an immediate response. Slightly worried, Twilight asked, "Rainbow? Are you Okay? Did you hurt yourself? Do I need to get help?" ... "R-Rainbow?" Twilight's voice started to crack. She ran up to the loft where Rainbow crashed into, and gasped at what she saw. Rainbow Dash was hiding under Spike's bed. Unsurprisingly, Spike was still asleep despite Rainbow's shivering body shaking the bed. Confused, Twilight asked "Why are you under Spike's bed?" Rainbow Dash finally aware that somepony was talking to her, she focused onto Twilight's face. "Hiding" Unsure if Rainbow was trying to pull a prank or is something did scare her, Twilight responded, "Hiding from what?" Rainbow's confidence slowly rising, as her subconscious was telling her that somepony thinks she is scared of something. "From the dark, tall, creepy thing that came from Whitetail Woods." Flabbergasted, "Your sure you saw something came out of Whitetail woods, the place where ponies take hikes and collect the maple syrup. Not the Everfree Forest, where strange and unknown creatures live?" "Yes," Rainbow started to doubt what she saw earlier that day. "It might be nothing." Relieved that Rainbow could be okay, Twilight suggested "May be reading Daring Do will help you calm down." Twilight using her magic to float up the book she was reading, up to the loft. "Yeah, It could of have been my Imagination. I can't believe that I freaked out like that. Sorry Twi." Rainbow said, as she grabbed the book. 'GASP' "What is wrong?" "I seen this before." Rainbow pointed at the Amulet, on the cover of the book. "The thing I saw had that symbol!" "Huh?" bewilderment grew of Twilight's face. "You saw the ancient pony letter symbol meaning 'the end' on the thing you saw?" "Yes" "DId you see the Mare of Death; the grey ailcorn, with the broken horn, wearing iron chains and frayed black dress, with her black cart that she uses carry the dead.?" "NO" "What did you see?" "Uh, a Gigantic skeleton, with glowing blue eyes, wearing a black like robe, and carries a creepy looking scythe. Who can apparently invade your thoughts and know your name." "Huh?" a suspicion rose thru Twilight's head. "Rainbow, did you stay up all night reading Daring Do?" "Yes." "Drinking the apple cider that you have been hording since Pinky gave you that barrel for your Birthday?" "Maybe?" Rainbow starting to be unsure where Twilight is now going. "Did you fall asleep after you raced Applejack today?" "Yeah." "Rainbow," Twilight said with a chuckle, "It was just a daydream, or in you case, a crazy daymare." "What!?!" RD exclaimed, "I couldn't possibly dream that, No way... or maybe... No its too crazy... argh!" Rainbow started to pace around the loft, Spike's bed still on her head. "Maybe it was a dream..." Rainbow stopped, ''Or I could prove that I wasn't dreaming it, and find it." With that in mind, Rainbow flew out the broken window. Spike's bed fell off when Rainbow Dash took off. He abruptly awoke. "Rarity!" He looked around, saw the broken window. "What did I miss?" asked Spike. Twilight chuckled, "Oh, Spike." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ "YES, AND THAT THE STORY BEHIND THE NAME BILL DOOR." Death finished, He paused and looked at how far he was in the wheat field. One row left. The story only took an hour, and He only started working on the field when Applejack did not believe Him on the part, where He had worked on a farm. "Ah, I still can not believe that you were fired," Applejack then giggled, "but then, a lot of things from where your from doesn't make sense to me." "I WAS ONLY FIRED IN THE FIRST PLACE WHEN THEY* THOUGH I WAS BEING TOO COMPASSIONATE TO THE LIVING." Death resumed His work on the field. "Your goin' to make me eat my own words." Applejack looked back on the wheat field. "Especially the way your doin' it." "ONE SLICE TO ONE STALK." DEATH replied. Applejack resumed picking up the fallen apples. "We don't have many bits to offer," with a chuckle, "but your quite the reaper man, I should hire you the next time harvest comes around.**" Apple Bloom came around the corner, To Applejack's understanding. The little filly was playing hide and seek with her friends. Apple Bloom looking for a hiding spot, stopped when she saw Death. "Ooo, who are you? Oh, I get it, you're a creature that help with the harvest. With that scythe and all." She stared at the nearly finished field. "Is that your special talent? Huh, I wonder what a harvesting cutie mark look like?" A distant voice was calling something out. Apple Bloom jumped alittle, "Uh oh, I got to hide, nice meeting you, what ever you are. Bye." Apple Bloom ran off into orchard. "How can she see you so easily?" As another question hit Applejack. "CHILDREN SEE ME BECAUSE THEY ARE TOO YOUNG TO UNDERSTAND WHAT I REPRESENT." Death answered, He then bent over to tie up the last bushel. "Done all ready? Ah shoot, I guess now I have to answer your questions then." "I WILL START SIMPLE, TELL ME ABOUT YOUR FAMILY." "Well, you briefly met my little sister Apple Bloom, she and her friends started their own club, they try to find their cutie marks." "WHAT IS A CUTIE MARK?" "Ah cutie mark is a representation of somepony's special talent." "I THINK VIMES, WOULD LOVE TO KNOW EVERYONE'S CUTIE MARK, IT WOULD MAKE HIS JOB EASIER." "Who?" "NEVER MIND, PLEASE CONTINUE WITH YOUR FAMILY." "There's Granny Smith, my grandmother, she hold all of the Apple Family traditions. She the head of the family." "OFF TOPIC HERE, WHO ARE THE RULERS OF THIS LAND?" "Well there's our beloved princesses, Princess Celestia and Princess Luna, they brought over two thousands years of peace and harmony to Equestria." "THANK YOU, YOU CAN GO BACK TO YOUR FAMILY." Death then though to Himself, there would be problems if they were true Immortals.*** "Hold on there, Are you purposely derailin' the conversation?" "YOU GOT ME, I WAS TRYING TO ERR... AS THEY SAY, MAKE CONVERSATION." Death sorrowfully replied. "Okay then, Ah, there's my big brother, Big Macintosh. He is the big rock that supports the family. He is very protective of the family." "ERR... IS BIG MACINTOSH, A BIG RED STALLION WITH A LARGE YOKE AROUND HIS NECK?" "Yes, why do you ask?" Applejack gave Death a puzzled look. She looked down and saw Big Mac was charging at Death. Big Mac leap at the tall dark figure, with all of his might. At the last second, Death disappeared, and Big Macintosh collided into the apple cart. Smashing the cart to pieces. "The Hayseed are you doin' Big Mac?" yelled Applejack. Big Macintosh pulled himself out of the wreckage. "You were beginning to be late, and Granny was gettin' worried. So I though to go check on you, and the next thing I see is this strange thing hovering next to you with a big scythe." She glared at him. "Didn't you see that I was talkin' to Him?" Big Macintosh responded. "NNope, and I wasn't takin' any chances." He gave her a stern look. "Well look at what you done, you big lug. Now we got to replace the apple cart, where are we going to find the bits?" Big Mac felt he was losing ground, but he kept fighting. "We can get the bits to replace it, but we can't afford to have anythin' to happen to you." Applejack yelled back, "Ah no you don't try to put this on me. I solved one of our problems already." she point at the field. Big Mac was thrown for a loop. The field was completely harvested, but it wasn't like that before he took his break and that was a few hours ago. 'Clink-' They both turned back toward the destroyed cart and saw a small pile of odd looking gold coins. "Well look at that, He paid for the cart, and helped harvest the field. And all that He was looking, was just for some questions to be answered." Applejack gave him a cold look. Big Mac felt that he was now on a sinking ship, but before he could say his final reply. Three small fillies interrupted him. "What Happen?" asked Sweetie Bell, she looked at the wrecked cart. "Were you and Big Mac fighting?" asked Apple Bloom. Applejack replied "Yes we were, but is is not any of y'all business, why don't ya help out by cleanin' the mess that your big brother made, while I have a word with him." "But, its a big mess." Scootaloo complained. "Try to clean up mess that my sister Rarity makes." replied Sweetie bell. She shuddered at the thought of her sister pulling another all-nighter. "We could maybe get our cutie marks trying to fix the cart." Apple Bloom chimed in. A smile grew across their faces. "Well at least we won't get cover in tree sap." Scootaloo added. In unison they yelled, "CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS CART FIXERS UPPERS, YAY!" After the ringing stopped, Applejack pulled Big Mac away, and proceeded to chew him out. However, it did not go out as well as she planned. "You what!" "nnnope." Big Mag said sheepishly. "You can't remember charging into my new friend and breaking the cart?" Applejack asked with udder bewilderment. Big Mac shook his head, "I remember bein' in a fight with you, but nothin' about it." AJ thought to herself, this day just got even more stranger. "Now I have even more questions, but you drove Him off, and you can't even remember doing it." "Sorry, sis." While Applejack was now interrogating Big Mac on what he can remember. The Trio of fillies, found something in the wreckage of the cart. Apple Bloom said, "Girls come look at this." "Ahh, cool its a sword!" exclaimed Scootaloo. "It looks like it prop for NightMare Night." said Sweetie Bell. Looking at the Skull and bone motif on the sword. "I bet ya it belongs to that strange fella that my sister was talking to." As Apple Bloom remembered the short meeting with Death. "We could hold on to it, for Him." replied Scootaloo, whom now was picking up the handle with her mouth. "I think we should tell my sister about it" asked Apple Bloom. Which then Sweetie Bell replied, "I think she has her hooves full with your big brother." The three fillies dragged the sword back to the clubhouse, while arguing on what thing to do next, to get their cutie marks. Death however was scratching His head on the spot where it was chipped. He wondered if He had forgotten anything. The pain still bothering Him, He shrugged it off, knowing that He cannot forget anything, and that the feeling that something was forgotten was just a side effect of bumping his skull. He proceeded to walk along the overgrown forest, toward a small cottage. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ *For those you did not read Reaper Man, the Auditors did it. As in, It was Them in the foyer with the candle stick. **Just as Applejack finished the sentence, Somewhere else, a particular pink pony's ear flopped and then sneezed. The pony started to giggle almost madly, she explained that somepony just disproved another pony in a funny way. ***As Normal people can not see death for they fear Him, He can not see true immortals, for He can only see things that can die.