//------------------------------//
// Arrival 
// Story: Reaper: Requiem's Reflection 
// by Ise no Kami 
//------------------------------//

	The sound of hooves pounding on stone echoed through the empty halls of the Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters. Twilight Sparkle galloped ahead, with her friends following not far behind. It wasn't long before they reached their destination. After passing a seemingly endless number of ornate stone pillars and windows filled with moonlight, the group finally stopped as the light's reach ended, and the hall before them was covered in pitch black darkness.
Out of this darkness shone a blue chest plate, emblazoned with a crescent moon...and above that, two sickly lime green, serpentine eyes, filled with malice.
"It's over, Nightmare Moon," Twilight defiantly proclaimed. The figure in the shadows remained silent...
"Nightmare Moon?" The figure suddenly spoke, surprising all of the ponies before it. Not because it had spoken, but because the voice was...male. "Sorry, never heard of her before," he replied, closing his eyes and putting a hand over his face. The hand, wrapped in a gauntlet of the same blue color as the chest plate, singled the mysterious being out as a human.
"Come to think of it, I don't believe we've met," the human mentioned, a malicious note leaking into his otherwise nonchalant tone. With that, he emerged from the shadows. He wore greaves that matched the same blue color as his gauntlets and chestplate, but otherwise his armor was as pitch black as the coat of Nightmare Moon herself. Being made of metal instead of flesh, the armor suit seemed that much colder and more intimidating. in his right hand, he held a massive scythe, the blade almost dragging on the floor. Where the blade met the pole, there was a lime green jewel with a black slit right down the middle, mimicking its owner's nightmarish eyes. Surprisingly, his head was bare, covered only by his golden hair, a large strand of which dropped down into his face. His eyes...the ponies suddenly realized why his eyes seemed more terrifying than those of Nightmare Moon. She had only wanted dominance over Equestria. Hers were the eyes of a tyrant. These were the eyes of a killer.
"I am Death," the human proclaimed, "and I have come for you all."
"Oh yeah!? Let's see you try!" Rainbow Dash shouted in retort.
At that, the others snapped back into focus. They may have misjudged who their opponent was, but that changed nothing. As one, they transformed into their Harmony forms, colors and cutie marks covering their bodies as they gathered in a bright ball of light. From this light shot a rainbow, aimed straight at this being called Death. As it approached, his mouth contorted into a sinister smile as he raised his free arm to protect himself. The rainbow bolt connected...
...and stopped.
"So this is the power to dispel evil," Death said, cockiness filling his voice. "Too bad the concept of evil doesn't apply to me."
With that, he pulled back his arm, as if brushing the harmony beam aside. Sure enough, the end of the rainbow shattered like glass at that instant, and a shadowy power swiftly made its way along the rest, covering the rainbow in darkness as it approached the ponies, who were now trapped by their own power. The darkness swallowed each pony in turn, ending with Rainbow Dash. As it covered her completely, the magic that held her in place gave way, and she fell into the abyss.
Before long, however, she landed hard on some surface. Slowly, she recovered from the fall, got on her hooves, and opened her eyes to look where she had landed. She immediately wished she hadn't bothered.
She was in Ponyville...or rather, what was left of it. The town looked like it had been hit by some sort of meteor storm. Every single building was destroyed, and most of the wrecks were ablaze. Those places where there was no fire were covered in ash, signifying that the flames had long since passed on. Few ponies could be seen, and those that were appeared to be long dead. Patches of blood stained the corpses and the rubble.
In the distance, behind what was left of a house, lay a familiar orange body.
"No... Oh please no," Rainbow mumbled to herself as she flew as fast as she could to the still bleeding body of Scootaloo. "Why!?" She screamed, tears filling her eyes. "Why did this have to happen!?"
"I told you, didn't I?" At the sound of Death's voice, the world fell away once more, leaving him and Rainbow in a sea of pitch black. "I came for you all, and I didn't mean just you and your friends."
With a snap of Death's fingers, the darkness fell away to reveal a barren wasteland, with no end in site. Nothing seemed to exist in this apocalyptic place, save for a single rock near Rainbow Dash.
"THIS is what I meant," Death gloated.
At that moment, a monstrous silhouette materialized on top of the rock, right next to Rainbow Dash. It was built like a timberwolf, but seemed far sturdier, and far more aggressive. Long whiskers, shaped like lightning bolts, extended forth from its face, and similar growths were attached to its flanks. They had an odd kind of movement, as if they were appendages instead of strands of hair. Malicious green eyes stared Rainbow Dash down, actually managing to make her freeze with fear.
"You see? Your world..."
The creatures eyes turned blood red.
"Shall die."
The creature pounced.





Rainbow jumped right out of her bed. Still in shock from the nightmare she just witnessed, she put a hoof on her chest, covered in her purple cloud bathrobe, to calm her spastic breathing. After a while, she calmed down, and looked around. She relaxed as she saw the familiar scene of her bedroom, the sides tinted teal, wispy lines flowing down the walls. Tank, in his own teal cloudy shell cover, lay, still sleeping, in one corner of the room. A crack of light shone through the purple blinds on the window. It must be early morning...far earlier than Rainbow was used to waking up by.
Just as Rainbow finally assured herself that the horror she had witnessed was just a dream, she heard a knock at her...window. Groggily, she took off her bathrobe and opened the blinds. There, hovering a few inches from her face, was her good friend Twilight Sparkle, looking rather panicked. Not that Rainbow was conscious enough to care.
"'sup, Twilight?" Rainbow remarked, almost yawning out the early morning greeting.
"There's no time for hellos!" Twilight yelled, sticking her face in Rainbow's, and grabbing ahold of the blue mare with her magic. "Come on!" With that, she dragged Rainbow out of her window as fast as she could.
"Hey, what do you think you're doing!?" Rainbow retorted, the shock of her friend's assault snapping her awake. Only then did she look down at the town below.
Ponyville was almost completely covered in black vines, piercing the buildings with strange aquamarine thorns. The vines seemed to have minds of their own, attacking anything and anypony they could wrap around. All throughout town, ponies fled from the black vines, or were their unfortunate victims, hanging off the ground.
"The Plundervines?" Rainbow inquired. Twilight had let her go by now. Though she could easily outpace the purple alicorn, she kept her leisurely speed to keep conversation with her...and hopefully get some answers. "I thought the Tree of Harmony destroyed them."
"Well, they're back now," Twilight answered. "We're gathering at Fluttershy's house to summon Discord. Hopefully, he can fix his mess."

The two mares arrived at Fluttershy's cottage to find the rest of their friends already there. It appeared Twilight had been busy while Rainbow was being tortured in her sleep. The four other ponies, conversing amongst themselves about the situation at hand, looked up in unison as their remaining two friends touched down nearby.
"Ah'm surprised you could get Rainbow up at this hour, Twilight," Applejack pointed out. Rainbow involuntarily cringed at that. She hoped she hadn't just gotten PTSD from a bucking nightmare, of all things.
"Um, I sent Discord a letter," Fluttershy whispered timidly. "He's on his way."
"A letter!?" Rainbow shouted. "That's gonna take forever!"
"Yoohoo!" The familiar voice shocked Rainbow into silence, as a long strip of bark peeled off of Fluttershy's hollow tree home. The bark then changed color, revealing its true form as the draconequus the ponies knew all too well. "Well, happy to see you too," he remarked bluntly, seeing that the shock in Rainbow's eyes had not been replaced with a feeling of annoyance that most of her friends shared. He had gotten used to that look; kind of brought it on himself.
"Well, Discord, now that you're here," Twilight started, giving the draconequus a stern look, "mind telling us why your Plundervines are all over Ponyville again?"
At that moment, the purple alicorn thought she caught the faintest glimpse of something, perhaps Discord's true reaction, before his chaotic personality took over again. It was only there for a fraction of a second, but she thought she saw...surprise? She shook her head to clear her mind. There was no way to be sure; she could just be imagining things. Even if she wasn't, Discord was a trickster. That hint of his "true feelings" could easily have been a ruse to make her drop her guard.
"Oh, I see," Discord replied, as a sentient tissue box popped into existence, hovering near his face. "Blame Discord, just because he made the things. How cruel." He burst into fake tears, waterfalls streaming from his eyes. An umbrella popped into existence to cover Fluttershy, but her five friends were soaked.
"Ok, look, you made these things, what do they want?" Rainbow asked, desperate for answers. The shower ended as Discord turned his attention to her inquiry.
"Oh, I believe you all know the answer to that," Discord replied smugly. "Well, if that's all you needed, I'm going home. Toodles!"
"No ya don't!" Applejack retorted, pulling out a lasso and roping the draconequus to the ground. "You're comin' with us, and you're makin' sure this never happens again."
"Ugh, fine," Discord muttered, separating his body in two at the lasso, then reforming it once he was free. "But only for Fluttershy." The yellow pegasus blushed and backed away.
The ponies-and draconequus-immediately made their way into the Everfree Forest nearby, searching for the Plundervines' target during their last appearance: the Tree of Harmony. Surprisingly, the trip through the forest was relatively uneventful. Yes, they were attacked by Plundervines, Plunder sleep gas venus fly traps, cragodiles, manticores, and other dezinens of the forest, but Discord sent these threats packing in hilarious ways before they could even reach the group. Pinkie Pie, fun-loving mare that she was, burst out laughing in response to most of these encounters. Rainbow, on the other hand, messed up as she was by her nightmare, thought about what these creatures were experiencing. Aside from removing some wings and horns, Discord had only messed with the ponies' personalities. As such, much was left to the imagination when thinking about the excruciating pain the creatures had to be going through in these otherwise silly experiences.
Eventually, the group reached a large gorge. On the other side, across a rickety bridge, was the ruined Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters, overrun with black spiked vines. Rainbow gave a shudder when she laid eyes on the ruin, but quickly composed herself. Their goal, the Tree of Harmony, was in the gorge below, with a staircase leading right to it. For now, there was no need to enter the backdrop of her nightmare.
"Is something wrong, Rainbow?" Twilight asked, finally noticing that her friend was not her usual self.
"It's nothing," Rainbow replied. "Just a nightmare. I'll be fine by tomorrow." With that, she and her friends-and Discord-descended into the pit to save the Tree of Harmony.
Except...there was nothing to save. The Tree of Harmony stood there, in its brilliant crystal glory, five of the Elements of Harmony still fixed to its limbs, while the Element of Magic was fixed to its center. There were no Plundervines in sight. Twilight looked to Discord. This time, there was no mistake. He stood there, with his jaw open. He may have made the Plundervines, but it was clear now that the havoc they were currently causing had nothing to do with him. So then what was going on?
"Maybe they found something else to drain?" Rarity inquired, throwing an idea out there.
"Hmm. The castle above us was crawling with the things," Twilight considered. "I believe a thorough search is in order."
"Ooh, this'll be fun!" Pinkie exclaimed, somehow getting brighter and cheerier than usual. She immediately sped off at a speed that made Rainbow jealous.
The rest of them made the climb back up the gorge, and approached the gates of the ruined castle. "Be careful, everyone," Twilight warned. Everyone nodded, except for Discord, who just sort of huffed arrogantly.
The search lasted for hours. Each pony traversed the empty stone halls, the only colors being the black and aquamarine of the Plundervines, and the darkening blue of the sky. Rainbow was on edge the entire time, half expecting the boy from her dream to come around a corner and murder her. Hmph. If he shows up, I'll pound him, she thought to reassure herself.
As the moon rose in the sky, the group lost the energy to continue the search. Discord was getting more and more irritable, sometimes screwing with the ponies just to keep his interest, and even Pinkie had worn herself out. Rainbow thought to check one last room before quitting the search herself. It just so happened to be the room where she and her friends had defeated Nightmare Moon over a year before. It was much like the halls-gray, sterile, cold, featureless except for the pillars and windows at the edges of the room. At the end, however, was a short dais, perhaps where the thrones once were, and behind that the remains of a giant window, through which moonlight shone beautifully on the empty room.
However, Rainbow had none of these things on her mind, for she had found the new source of the Plundervines' energy. And she wished she had just left the door closed. There, on the dais, a large clump of Plundervines were sticking their thorns into a living being. The vines covered up his body, but the golden hair on his head was unmistakable, all the way down to that one large strand that fell over his sleeping face.
It was the boy who had made Rainbow's nightmare a living Hell.
She must have freaked out involuntarily, because all of her friends-and Discord-came running. They were all stunned by the sight, not just because the vines had targeted a living being, but because that being was a human in Equestria, most likely the first. Rainbow's friends started talking about how to free the poor boy, but Rainbow couldn't join in. She had seen this boy before, and wondered if he was truly the monster from her dreams. She wondered if they should even bother freeing him in the first place.
As it turned out, they didn't need too. The boy opened his eyes, and the clump of vines surrounding him were swallowed in a ball of purple light. As the boy jumped out of this light, eyes closed once more, the light dissipated to reveal that the vines restraining him had been severed. Now that he was free, Rainbow could see that this boy looked different from the one in her nightmare, though they were unmistakably the same. The nightmare armor was nowhere to be seen. Instead, he wore a brown leather jacket, the body of which stopped halfway to his waist, with a plain white shirt underneath. He wore regular blue jeans, leading down to brown shoes. A scarf of the same color brown decorated his neck, flapping in the drafty air of the ruin. He opened his eyes, and, while they were of normal shape, the irises were blood red. He held his right arm out to his side, and the same shadowy power from Rainbow's dream gathered around it, materializing his scythe in his hand. It was the same scythe Rainbow had seen, but instead of a nightmare eye, the jewel was dark purple, almost black.
"Well, this is certainly no Paradise," the boy said to himself. The voice lacked the hints of malice, but was otherwise the exact same as the voice of his Nightmare counterpart.
Right then, five Venus Plunder traps came in through the windows, apparently not so keen on letting their prey slip away. This time the ponies weren't given the chance to even think of helping. As the venus traps approached, the boy cut them all down in a single swing, wielding his massive scythe with one hand. Finally, a giant trap broke through the stone dais, preparing to finish him. Without hesitation, the boy turned around and jammed his scythe's blade right into the venus trap's mouth. It writhed, fell still, and disintegrated, bringing the rest of the Plundervines with it. The ponies and draconequus just stood there with their jaws on the floor...even Discord's. Finally, the boy turned around, and noticed his spectators.
"Who the hell are all of you?"