//------------------------------// // Reintroduction // Story: Do Not Go Gentle // by ShinigamiDad //------------------------------// Princess Luna shifted back and forth on her cushions, settling into a comfortable slouch as her mind reached out beyond her chambers to touch multiple ponies’ dreams. As she glided above Equestria’s ever-shifting dreamscape, she saw a young earth pony struggling with a cluster of dark, choking vines that had appeared beside an otherwise placid pond. The vines had sneaked up behind the pony and pulled her under the water’s surface. Luna tipped a wing up, and dropped down in a low arc, effortlessly clearing away the tendrils with a bright sweep of her horn’s magic. “Thank you, Princess!” she heard as she pulled back up from her dive, beating her wings briefly to regain altitude, before resuming her patrol. Luna next swept by Cloudsdale, and observed a young pegasus, front-and-center on the flight school flight line, weeping as her feathers fell out in clumps. Again, the Princess descended, alighting in front of the shaken filly. “I’m so glad to see you, Princess!” she cried in relief. Luna nodded, and pale violet plumage reappeared, allowing the relieved flier to resume her dream. Luna lifted off the clouds with a smile, a wave, and a shout: "Best of luck to you, Quick Quill!" “Oh, Princess!” cried a distraught unicorn as Luna’s shadow passed overhead, en route to Canterlot, “I’ve ruined everything again! Why won’t it stop?!” Luna descended in a tight spiral, touching down before the weeping stallion, who was standing in deep shadow amid the smoldering wreckage of a burned-out cottage littered with crumbling books, shattered picture frames, and slashed bedding. She leaned forward and touched his horn with her own, soothing him. “You must move on, Stardust,” she said gently. “You have grown from this experience, and its pain has taught you all it can. Revisiting it every night is simply trapping you in the past. I know whereof I speak!” "I--I know," Stardust sobbed, "I have to talk to her tomorrow! I have to stop letting this control me!" Luna nodded sympathetically, then unfurled her wings and rose slowly above the downcast unicorn, her deep indigo form blending into the night sky. Luna was gliding across Equestria’s dreamscape, seeking the next pony in need of succor, when her eyes fluttered open briefly, then drooped heavily. She fell unbidden into a light slumber. She shook her head to clear the gauzy feeling that had overcome her, and was surprised to find that she was sitting in the midst of a vast, featureless slate-gray plain under a dull white sky. “What? Where…?” she stammered. Then she realized she had dozed off for a moment and was now beyond her accustomed dreamscape. Who could possibly have opened a path through her realm without her knowing? She scowled and laid her ears back. “Where are you? Show yourself!” “My apologies, Princess, but you know I try my best not to be seen in the lands of the living--awake or asleep--if I can help it. The locals consider me bad luck.” Luna spun and faced a cocoa-brown unicorn stallion. His unkempt, gray-streaked mane swayed slightly as he nodded to her. Coming out of the shallow bow, he raised his head and shifted his right shoulder, adjusting a tattered, black-trimmed white cloak further across his back. “Reaper,” Luna said. “I have not seen you in a very long time!” He shrugged: “Well, to be fair, you were rather occupied…” Luna glared at him. “Sorry,” he said “that was kind of cheap. And sorry too, for the bland décor. I don’t exactly have your flair for world creation.” He cast his gaze about the empty expanse surrounding them. “Never mind that, why have you brought me here?” she snorted. “I need you to come with me and take a look at something. Somepony’s doing my job for me, without my permission, and hiding it pretty well.” “Somepony’s killing others? How ghastly! But surely you know it as it happens? Aren’t you always present to escort the deceased on beyond this world?” Reaper shuffled his hooves uncomfortably. “Yeah, you’d think that, wouldn’t you?” Luna’s eyes widened in surprise. “How can this be--you’re Death’s Harbinger! Nopony can leave this life without you giving them passage, just as surely as nopony can dream without my taking note!” “Uhh, about that…” Luna tipped her head slightly to one side and raised an eyebrow. “Meaning…?” “I think the killer got “behind my back,” if you will, though the victim’s dreams.” Luna reared back in shock: “Impossible!” Reaper shrugged apologetically: “I repeat--you’d think that, wouldn’t you? Come on, your Highness, let’s take a little trip to the realm of the impossible. Should be a real eye-opener for both of us. Speaking of…” Luna snapped awake, back in her chambers, with Reaper standing at the foot of her dais. “Where are we going?” she asked. “A little village west of Smokey Mountain, right on the seashore.” “Lead on!” The room was briefly filled with the dazzling flash of Luna’s departure, then fell dark again. Reaper simply disappeared as though he had never been there.