Chapter 1-Turner

There comes a point in everypony’s life when you ask yourself, what is my reason for living? Does my life have any purpose? Am I meant for something greater than being just a normal pony? When you find the answers to these questions, it’s usually a good thing. After all, from those answers you can help out your fellow ponies by making the world a better place or simply find your place in the world. So when the realization that your whole point in existing is to take the souls of the living, it’s kind of a downer.

Everyday without fail, I do my job. Everyday, I make my run. I do my errands and everyday I wind up here in the park on this same bench, where I think and ask myself the same questions repeatedly. Why Time Turner, why do you do this? Why do you harvest souls of the living when you know what it means? Why aren’t you brave enough to say no? Why don’t you just accept your fate and move on? Why, why, why?

“There you are Time Turner, I thought I’d never find you.” I glace over at the voice to see a young mare trotting up to me. Her coat a pale tint of white that brought out her blond mane rather well, even as unkempt as it was. Her eyes a bright blue that just brimmed with life and that were also way too innocent for their own good. The way she moved, it was with a very fine grace as if from royalty but to a trained eye like mine, it was an obvious ruse. She probably had snobby parents who made her take lessons or something. She’s a rather cute kid in all honesty. Forty years younger and I’d even go so far as to call her attractive. The look on her face told me I was probably staring.

“You’re late kid.” I said rather evenly, all the while staring into those big blue eyes. I couldn’t get over how blue they were. Her face got slightly flushed at my line.

“Sorry about that Time Turner, it’s my first time in Ponyville and I got a little lost.” She put her hoof to her face as if to hide her embarrassment, which ironically only made it worse somehow. She shook it off a second later. “I’m all ready to go now though so lead the way.” High pitched voice aside I appreciated her enthusiasm. It’s a rare find in a job like this.

“Follow me then.” I got off my bench and unnecessarily motioned her to follow. As we walked down the near empty streets of Ponyville I made sure to keep a close eye on her, taking note of every little movement she made. Step one, observe.

A moment is all it takes for me, one moment and I had all the information I needed. The way she walks, the way she smells, how she feels, how she carries herself, even small parts of her personality. I had it all, and with step one complete it was time for step two, communication.

“Your name is…Minute Hand, right?” Pretend to struggle for her name to make me seem more normal.

“Yeah but it’s pronounced Min-et. You can call me Min for short. I think it sounds cuter that way.” She gave a way too big smile for my liking. I swear it could have rivaled Pinkie’s.

“Okay, ‘Min’ this should be an easy question but you do know where we’re going and what we’ll be doing today, right?” If she doesn’t know I swear I’ll reap her right now.

“We’re on our way to harvest a soul of a living being as that is our job and duty as reapers.” Maybe I imagined it but her voice seemed to become robotic for a second, even though she said the whole thing with a smile. Harvesting souls of the living and saying it with a smile, wow. I don’t know if I should be happy she’s excited about being a reaper or scared that she’s excited about being a reaper.

“Correct. Once we get there I’ll give you the note and then you can go to work. It should be a simple first reap.” First reaps usually are except in rare cases like mine. A few moments of silence went by before she spoke again.

“Time Turner, is it okay if I ask you a question?” Is she joking with me, nope, her face is dead serious.

“You just did but go ahead, ask me anything you want.” I actually rather enjoy being probed for information. I like to consider myself an open pony to anything not reaper associated.

“What does it feel like when you take a soul for the first time?” Her voice, I swear it had a tinge of sadness about it. Her outward appearance is the same and there weren’t any strange movements or little quirks to indicate a problem, yet I swear there was more to that question a second ago. I stared at her for a good few seconds. This girl…is very good. I guess I’ll just answer the question and observe her some more after.

“It’s…overwhelming. Whenever you take a living soul, it envelops your body with excess energy and emotion that threatens to make you burst. Your entire body feels like it’s in a state of pure uncontrolled chaos and that with even the slightest movement everything could just end. The entirety of which lasts only a split second but it feels like an eternity. It’s not just the first time either. Every time you take a soul you get filled with this state of being. I’ve been doing this job for a very long time and even now it still gets to me.” I glanced over at Min expecting to see shock of some kind and instead I see another way too big smile and a slight hint of a giggle.

“That’s amazing! That sounds…so…cool! I can’t wait to do my first reap. I figured with a job like this that it would be boring and that you would have to be emotionless to do this kind of thing. Ohhh I’m so happy now.” Min started jumping around and I could only watch in a near horrified stupor. The answer to my previous question is yes, I should be scared of her.

Having done this job for a very long time I got a sort of knack for knowing who to watch out for and who was okay to get close to. I’ve only known Min for a few minutes now and I could tell she was dangerous in her own little way, although I’m not entirely sure what way that is yet. I want to explore this more but for now though, I should try to calm her down. A reaper should not be this happy.

“Min calm down. This is serious business and it isn’t something you can be all holly and jolly about. We harvest souls for a living and help them move on to the afterlife. It might sound ‘cool’ to you but if we mess up or don’t do our job it can cause some serious problems. Worse case scenario, the soul disappears forever. I assume you don’t want to be responsible for the complete eradication of a living being because you got a little too excited. Whenever you take a soul you have to remain calm and collected or else it could disappear forever.” My voice was strong and direct just as I intended it to be, yet why do I feel as if it didn’t work.

She wasn’t jumping, smiling, or doing anything for that matter. She had stopped dead and was just staring at me with those big blue eyes yet I feel as if I had lost this round.

“Sorry…I just got a little excited. I didn’t know anything bad like that could happen. I promise I will always be calm and collected when I do my job.” That robotic voice again, it seems like she uses it whenever she’s serious about something.

Why am I thinking about eyes all of a sudden? Never mind, although that does remind me of something I should ask her.

“Min, how old are you?” I needed to know this. She had the appearance of a mare in her mid twenties or so but that meant nothing. I look like I’m in my twenties but I’m pushing seventy.

“Thirteen, why?” Young, very young but then again I assumed as much. Her energy and quick emotional turns pointed to this. As a reaper, it is so much harder to control emotions. In a way, I’m kind of hoping she loses all feeling before the year is out. It will make this job much easier to bear.

“No reason, just curious as you can’t tell age in bodies like ours.” The Pinkie smile returned to her.

“That’s right! I completely forgot Celestia’s magic turned us into different ponies.” She took a moment to glance herself over. I wonder if she was enjoying her new body. Thirteen or not, she had the body of an adult now. She looked back at me. “How old are you Time Turner?”

“Sixty nine and this is my fourth body.” I couldn’t help but reminisce about my other bodies. “I actually preferred my last body to this one. This body is rather bland and uninteresting, tacky even. My last one had a bright blue coat and the one before that was pink, by far my least favorite body.” I really don’t want to recall that.

“Um, Time Turner…what the hell is that?” She pointed to a small black creature that crawled through the window of a small cottage. I didn’t realize we had already made it to our target destination, Fluttershy’s cabin.

“That was a gravesitter, min. They can only be seen by us reapers and live only to help and serve us.” I took a moment before continuing. “At least that’s how it’s supposed to be anyway. Normally the gravesitters help cause ‘accidents’ or deliver the notes we use to find our target. They have a few other uses as well but you’d be lucky to ever have need of them. If you see one then chances are something nearby is going to die.” I don’t care much for gravesitters after that event with Celestia.

“So this is where my first target lives. It’s a cute place.” Damn that Pinkie smile, it hides her well.

“Yeah…anyway here you go. It’s nine fifty-seven and you have five minutes, get to work.” I gave her the note, which she quickly glanced over before sneaking inside. Five minutes passed rather quickly and she came out with a rather pleased look on her face.

She messed up something, she couldn’t hide it from me. The deed was done though and that’s all that’s important I suppose. Her pleased look quickly turned to irritation when got next to me.

“You liar Time Turner, you said I would get filled with energy and emotion and stuff but I didn’t feel a thing.” She was glaring and I just glared right back.

“Let’s go Min and the reason you didn’t get filled with any energy is because of the soul you took. It was a weak soul and filled with relatively no energy whatsoever. The stronger the soul, the more overwhelming it is when you harvest it.” It was just an animal soul after all, it wouldn’t be that strong.

“I’ve been meaning to ask, but why do we call it harvesting a soul when all we do is help them move on to the afterlife? Harvesting makes it sound like were doing something…well bad or downright evil.” I just stared at her, I didn’t quite know how I wanted to answer that question. The best way is probably the most obvious.

“Simple, the name comes with the job. We’re called reapers, so whenever we help a soul move on we call it harvesting simply because of our title as a reaper. That’s all there is to it.” I’m done with this question.

“Oh, good morning Time Turner. What brings you over this way? Do you need help with some animals, ohh maybe you’re looking for a pet?” Fluttershy, I had hoped to avoid you. Better play it cool.

“No, I’m just out showing my niece around town. She just moved to Ponyville and I’m giving her the grand tour.” I smiled, genuinely. It was something I couldn’t help but do around Fluttershy.

“That’s so nice. I hope you enjoy Ponyville and if you ever need any help with any animals just let me know.” Fluttershy, ever the animal lover. “I would love to stay and talk but if you’ll excuse me I have to get back to Angel. He gets cranky if I don’t give him his early morning lunch on time.” She stopped talking and just casually looked at me.

“It’s fine Fluttershy, we can talk again someone other time. Say bye to Fluttershy Min.” Role with it Min.

“Bye bye Miss Fluttershy. It was really nice to meet you.” Way to overact Min.

“Goodbye then.” With that, she walked away from us towards her cottage. You honestly couldn’t find kindness in a better place if you tried.

“Time Turner, is she going to be okay? She doesn’t seem like the type to take pet death too well.” That’s what anyone would assume had they just met her.

“I don’t think it even fazes her. I get jobs here all the time and I’ve never seen her heartbroken over any of the animals that died. It’s somewhat to be expected though. As the town’s vet I’m sure she’s seen her fair share of animal deaths.” I have my own suspicions about Fluttershy but I suppose now’s not the time or place. “Min, that’s all for today. Meet me tomorrow at the same spot for your next job.”

“Okay Time Turner, I’ll see you tomorrow then, bye bye.” I don’t think I will ever get used to that Pinkie smile of hers.

“Bye Min.” Min, you did a good job for your first time. I could help but feel a little proud, while at the same time a little cautious. You’re certainly going to become a powerful reaper, your words give that away.

I suppose now isn’t the time to worry about it though. After all, I have much more important things to worry about right now. I think after I do my reap I’ll go talk to Twilight. Maybe I’ll finally make some progress with her.

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