Reaper froze, closed his eyes and sighed, “Oh, that can’t be good!”
Twilight looked over her right shoulder toward the chamber’s entrance, and cried out in horror, “Oh, Luna, no!! Why?!”
Grey Thorn chuckled, “I think, the ‘why’ is clear enough: as I said, she realized the futility of this battle. It’s the ‘how’ that I don’t understand! How did you get past my entry wards and charms?”
Nightmare Moon stepped into the chamber, her eyes blank, glowing with a cold, silver light: “The Usurper left me two gifts.”
She tipped her horn down toward her breast, and a shiny, wet, red blob rose from behind her cuirass, rising up until it rested on the tip of her horn. Twilight looked down at the dark line of dried blood crusted on the inside of her left foreleg.
Nightmare Moon then turned back to the entry, kicked the box aside that was blocking the door, and touched her horn to the one of the glyphs, now glowing in the presence of her dark energy.
“And in that spirit, I will give The Bitch two gifts,” she said as the wall suddenly shimmered and became transparent, taking on the appearance of smoked glass.
She turned back to the others: “Now when she finds the note I left her--her first gift--she will come here and watch the end of everything she holds dear!”
Nightmare Moon began walking slowly into the chamber, her greaves ringing on the stone floor, eyes glowing, the light from the others’ horns glinting off her helmet.
She stopped and looked back over her shoulder for a moment: “And she can stand there, impotent and trapped, just as I was, and taste the bitterness of a defeat that will last well beyond a thousand years!”
Twilight wept openly as Reaper shook his head: “Why? You know he’s lying to you! Only one can control and take from that vile thing, and it damn sure won’t be you!”
Nightmare Moon stopped and lifted her head haughtily: “That is undoubtedly true, Harbinger, and the day will come, someday, when I decide to eliminate him, too, you can rest assured!”
Grey Thorn laughed with delight, his eyes ablaze: “Spectacular! And on that day, Nightmare-who-is-again, we will have a glorious battle!”
“But in the meantime,” he continued, dropping to the floor of the chamber, stepping forward, sweeping his horn’s magic across Reaper’s barrier, dissolving it, “let us dispense with these two, and bring this farce to a conclusion!”
Twilight turned to face Grey Thorn, casting a fresh barrier in respectable imitation of Reaper’s, as Reaper advanced on Nightmare Moon slowly and warily, sword hovering in front of him.
“Don’t make me do this, Luna, please! You know I can separate your spirit from your flesh in the blink of an eye--you’ve seen me do it!”
Grey Thorn stopped, licked his lips nervously, and watched Reaper advance on Nightmare Moon. The Void loomed behind him, probing and pressing at Twilight’s barrier.
“‘Tis true that I fear you, Harbinger,” Nightmare Moon said as she broke into a trot, head down, horn aglow, “but I fear Grey Thorn and his creation more! I do this because I desire to live--and to live in the dark, fearsome majesty I have long been denied, even if it means sharing dominion!”
“Oh, Luna, no!” Twilight sobbed, fighting off the Void’s advances, though nearly blinded by tears, “Your majesty shines through the love and friendship you share with all of us!”
“A pale imitation of true majesty--a majesty which will also be denied to you quite shortly!” Nightmare Moon snorted contemptuously.
Reaper assumed a defensive crouch, his blade poised to strike, as Nightmare Moon thundered down the final few yards, wings outspread, horn glittering: “I’m begging you, Luna--don’t do this!”
The dark alicorn, armor and accouterments clanking and glittering, bore down on Reaper, leaping at the last moment, exposing her belly and chest to his upraised blade.
“Let us see if Death’s slave can die, too!” she cried, flashing a feral grin.
Twilight screamed in the background, and Grey Thorn leaned forward, eyes wide with anticipation, as Nightmare Moon descended on Reaper with her front hooves.
In those final moments, Reaper’s mind raced, noticing discrepancies as Nightmare Moon closed the gap at speed: her cuirass was cracked, with a chain dangling loose; one of her greaves was damaged; her helmet was dented.
He stayed his blade for one last instant as she looked down on his upturned face, froth at the corners of her mouth, nostrils flared, eyes flashing, clearing for a moment, then flashing again: her fully-dilated, aquamarine, round eyes.
Reaper turned his sword a fraction of an inch, and phased so that the greaved hooves passed through his neck and shoulder, kicking up sparks and dust. He cried out in pain and rage.
At the same time his blade bit into the armored breastplate, skittering aside, clattering to the floor, and he collapsed in a heap as the retreating hind legs kicked free, passing through the side of his face.
Reaper flopped onto his side as though stunned, and moaned, surreptitiously opening one eye, just enough to see the dark form, wings flared, speeding toward Twilight.
“Oh, Blessed Cosmos, please let me be right!” he whispered.
Grey Thorn strained forward, his breath coming in short, shallow bursts, separating slightly from the Void in order to get a clearer view of Twilight as the dark, speeding form bore down on her.
“No, no, no, Luna!” Twilight sobbed, falling forward on her knees as her violet shield bubble collapsed, and the Void surged.
She looked up one last time to see blank, glowing eyes, a blazing horn, and slicing hooves bearing down on her: a perfect vision of Death. Her anus clenched reflexively as her bowels turned to water, and she squeezed her tear-streaked eyes shut a final time, just as her sight was filled with a silver-white flash, accompanied by a ‘pop.’
...which was matched by a teleport “flash-pop” directly in front of Grey Thorn.
Luna drove her dark-magic-charged horn its full length into Grey Thorn’s chest, ending with a “crunch” as her helmet shattered his sternum, spattering the top of her head with blood. His eyes flew open and he looked down, stunned and horrified.
“Wha-what have you done?!” he sputtered, as blood gushed and bubbled into his mouth, spraying down his chest, splattering across Luna’s muzzle.
Reaper scrambled to his feet and began galloping as fast as he could toward Twilight, sword flying to him as he ran.
“Get out of there, Luna! Fall back!” he shouted as he threw up another barrier shield in front of Twilight, who was now crouched forward, holding her abdomen, fighting back sobs.
Grey Thorn frantically pawed at Luna’s face, trying to push her away, as the Void suddenly loomed over all four combatants. Luna planted her hooves, and violently yanked her head up and sideways, shattering Grey Thorn’s ribcage, tearing through one of his lungs, and releasing a gout of blood, which gushed across her breastplate.
Luna stumbled backwards as Grey Thorn collapsed, clutching at his chest, sputtering out power words, pulling the Void in close in an effort to feed off its energy.
Reaper stopped next to Twilight, who was trying to stand, still blinking away tears: “Move it Princess, we have to get away from that thing! Luna just pulled off as brilliant a combat maneuver as I’ve ever seen--and it’s probably going to get us all destroyed!”
She moaned and retched a little: “I--I--my stomach, oh, Celestia, my stomach!”
“We have to go!” Reaper shouted in her ear, tugging on her mane with his magic, “I don’t care if you shit yourself where you stand, we have to back away as far as possible! He’ll be dead any minute, and when he goes, that Void will be totally uncontrolled!”
Reaper helped Twilight stagger toward the chamber entrance, as Luna dashed away from the suddenly sprawling, swelling Void.
Grey Thorn struggled to his knees and summoned the Void to him, wrapping himself in its nimbus, siphoning off as much energy as he could in an attempt to support his waning life force.
He gasped: “I--I will recover from this! I-I can use it to heal, to stave you off, errand-colt!”
“Idiot!” Reaper shouted back, casting up sheet after sheet of deep blue barrier, “You’re a dead stallion and you don’t even know it!”
“No! N-no--I am master of it,” Grey Thorn gurgled, retching blood on his hooves, “Watch!”
The three companions watched as Grey Thorn’s bones and flesh did indeed begin to knit and fill-in, but only for a moment. The Void began to separate again, and press forward toward the chamber’s front wall, leaving Grey Thorn gasping and reeling.
Suddenly there was a banging at the wall; Celestia’s face appeared through the darkened, glassy material, flanked by two pegasus guards and a pair of earth ponies, bearing pick axes.
Celestia turned to the other ponies and said something that could not be heard clearly by those on the other side, but the intent was clear: the four ponies quickly moved away, apparently leaving the study altogether.
All at once, as though the sun had just risen, the chamber was filled with a blinding radiance, and a wave of heat forced the three companions to move away from the barrier wall a few feet.
Reaper turned to fully face the glow, closing his eyes and luxuriating for a moment in the wave of power it brought him.
His eyes flew open, wide with alarm: “Shit! Luna--can you darken this wall again? That kind of power flowing into this space might actually allow Grey Thorn to recover a bit!”
All eyes turned to the back of the chamber, where Grey Thorn was indeed attempting to focus the Void as best as he could in order to capture Celestia’s power.
Luna nodded and sent a pulse of dark magic at the center of the door: “Forgive me sister…”
The chamber went dark again, save for the glow from four horns, which was rapidly being swallowed up by the ever-expanding Void.
“Now what?” Twilight asked. “Shouldn’t we leave? I can open the door again, if you give me a second…”
But as she spoke the words, Grey Thorn surged forward, borne up on the Void’s nimbus and tendrils. Black ribbons lashed out at the alicorns, seeking their essences, and they scattered from the doorway as Reaper swung his sword, throwing up a series of barriers.
Grey Thorn leaned toward the door and spoke a pair of power words. The outline of the door glowed gold and crimson for a moment, then went dark.
“Nopony is leaving here!” he shouted hoarsely, blood foaming on his lips, dripping from his nose. “This is the origin place of my creation, and here I can use it to its greatest potential, saving myself, and destroying you!”
Twilight ran up next to Reaper as Luna took to the air, turning back and firing bolts of dark magic back toward Grey Thorn.
“Can he really do that?” she asked.
“No, he’s dead--it’s just a matter of time,” Reaper replied. “It’s what happens when he finally dies that has me worried.”
Luna landed next to Reaper and Twilight: “Then what shall we do? He is returning as we speak, and I do not think we can hold off another concerted attack by that thing!”
Reaper chewed his lip for a moment: “Do you trust me?”
Twilight and Luna exchanged glances, then looked at Reaper: “Yes.”
He closed his eyes and sighed deeply.
“You’re not going to like this, but here we go…”