The Reaper's Game

by SIaanme

Reminiscence

DAY 5: 2

"WHY-" Thud "-WON'T-" Thud "-YOU-" Thud "-OPEN!" Thud "STUPID WALL!" Thud, thud, thud, thunk. Pinkamena sunk to the ground, head still resting against the barrier. "This isn't fair. They're not allowed to do this!"

"Yes, I heard you the first dozen or so times," Twilight said. "It's still only been five minutes. Maybe it'll come down soon."

"Yes, and maybe there'll be a giant cake waiting for us on the other side, but I wouldn't get my hopes up," Pinkamena said. "Face it Twilight, that wall's not coming down."

Privately, Twilight agreed. With the relatively short time limit imposed on them, five minutes could mean the difference between li... well, death and erasure really. If the wall was meant to come down, it would have been cleared by now. However, Pinkamena didn't know about her secret weapon. One quick dispelling from Twilight and they'd both be out of there. Twilight had tried to use her trick while Pinkamena was busy banging her head against a wall, but physical contact with the wall seemed to cause it to emit high powered magical pulses, effectively blinding her etheral sight. But now that Pinkie had stopped her assault, maybe she could....

"YOU SHALL KNOW TORMENT LIKE NONE OTHER WALL!" Pinkamena suddenly cried, resuming her attack. Twilight sighed. I should have acted quicker. Distantly she noted Pinkamena had added kicking and ramming to her repertoire. "YOU WILL RUE THE DAY YOU TRIED TO STOP PINKAMENA DIANA PIE!"

"Okay, I get it. You hate the wall. But if you could just stopping hitting it for a few moments..."

Pinkamena didn't stop. "No! If the reapers won't lower the wall, then we'll just have to break it down! Or failing that, the noise will attract a reaper, and we'll force them to lower it!"

"But that's what I'm trying to- wait, attract a reaper? You can't be serious!"

"Of course I am! What's the matter, scared?"

"Not scared, just thinking. If the reapers have kept us stuck in here on purpose, what makes you think they're going to help us get out?"

"I don't. That's why I said we force them."

"Uh huh. And how do you plan to do that?"

"Simple. While I'm luring them out, you hide, and when they arrive, WHAM! You ambush them!"

"Wooow, that's a smart plan!"

"Thanks, it was easy enough to come up with."

"Uh, Pinkamena?" Twilight said. "That wasn't me..."

"What? What do you mean that wasn't you?" Pinkamena asked. "Then who was it?"

"Hmm, I wonder," came the voice that wasn't Twilight again. "Oh wait, I know! It was me! A shame I heard your plan before, but other than that little problem, it was great! Oh, and that part where you thought you could ambush a Reaper!" Twilight looked up. Inexplicably hovering in the air above them was a peach coloured earth pony. On her flank was the same skull design that was on the player pins. A Reaper! Twilight knew immediately. Well, since she's here...

"Hey, I never thought I'd be glad to see one of you! Our wall hasn't come down yet, can you maybe do something about that? Please?"

"Hmmm.... No. One, not my division; two, even if it was, why would I let two sitting ducks like you go? We're not called Reapers for nothing you know!" The pony smiled. "Now, should I draw this out, or erase you quickly? Ooh, there are two of you! I can do one fast and one drawn out. That way everypony wins!"

"I can't believe it!" Pinkamena suddenly exclaimed. "Candy Cane, is that you?"

"What? How do you know who I am? Wait..." The pony hovered towards Pinkamena, frowning. All of a sudden she broke into a grin. "Pinkie Pie! It's you isn't it! Wow, how long has it been? You were just a foal last time! Well I guess I was too... How'd they rope you into another game?"

"Hang on a minute," Twilight interrupted. "How do you two know each other?"

Pinkamena looked sheepish. "Right. Introductions. Candy, this is Twilight Sparkle, my current partner. Twilight, this is Candy Cane, my previous partner."

"Your partner?" repeated Twilight incredulously. "You had a Reaper for a partner last game?"

"What? No!" Pinkamena looked shocked at the suggestion. "No, when we met she was just a normal pony. When we won, I chose life, she chose reaping."

"Wait you can do that?"

"Yeah. I mentioned that back in day one, remember?"

"Did you?" Twilight thought back. "Hmm, maybe you did. Well you can't blame me for forgetting. That was ages ago."

"Twilight, it was four days ago." Pinkamena paused for a few seconds before continuing. "Anyway, Candy, since it's me, would you mind lowering that wall? Please? For the sake of all the good times we had when we were foals?"

"Well we did have some pretty good times," Candy admitted. "Hmmm.... nah. If it's all the same to you, I haven't erased anypony in days, and like I said, you can't escape. If it makes you feel any better, I'll probably feel bad for a few seconds after I've erased you, so that's some comfort right?"

"Oh yes. We'll be gone forever, but that's okay because you'll feel bad about it. Yeah, that takes the sting out," Twilight deadpanned. Candy Cane missed the sarcasm in it though.

"Wait, that works? I should lie about this whole feeling bad thing more! Then I'll get to erase so many ponies!"

"No, I.... Ugh. Was she like this during your last game as well?" Twilight asked Pinkamena.

"What, eager to attack stuff, or oblivious to sarcasm? Both hold true."

"Now which one of you should I erase first?" Candy Cane was muttering to herself. "Maybe the unicorn... but is she likely to be a screamer? I like it when the ponies scream..."

Twilight could only see one way out. She had to bring the walls down. The only problem was the reaper. She didn't particularly want her knowing that she could take down walls at will. That seemed like the sort of thing that could get her erased. But to do nothing was also to be erased. "Pinkamena," she whispered. "Do you think you can keep crazy over there distracted for a minute or so? I think I can get us out of here."

"Sure, give me the life threatening job," Pinkamena muttered back. Raising her voice, she addressed Candy Cane. "So, Candy, I imagine you must have flown through the reaper ranks. Especially if you're working alone. Don't most reapers have partners?"

"Now that you mention it..." Candy looked around briefly. "Good, he's not here yet. I hate sharing."

"Wait, so you do have a partner? Then why aren't you with him?"

"Because he's soo boring! He barely ever says anything, and when he does say anything he's always saying things like "Don't erase the players" or "You're not allowed to do anything fun" or "Don't do anything at all." He's a total killjoy!"

Pinkamena winked at Twilight, who took her cue. Trying to not attract any attention, she moved towards the wall. Firing up both her player pin and her horn, she quickly sent out a magical pulse. The returning pulse gave her the image of two crossed swords forming this side of the wall, with the origin point at the hilt of one of them. She approached it and prepared the unlocking spell... and was suddenly knocked on her back. Pinning her down was Candy Cane, smiling the most terrifying smile Twilight had ever seen.

"Well I don't know what you were trying to do there, but I'm willing to bet High Tide a sandwich that it was nothing good. Which means you get to go first, and slowly!" A sickly green glow appeared above her head, where her horn would be if she was a unicorn. The glow intensified, forming the shape of a sickle. "Feel free to scream." the reaper said, leaning closer to Twilight's neck. Twilight closed her eyes...

Suddenly Twilight found herself no longer weighed down. She risked a peek and opened her eyes. Sure enough, Candy Cane was gone. Instead, she saw Pinkamena's head hovering over her, looking worried. "Are you okay Twilight?" Pinkamena inquired, helping Twilight back to her feet. "She didn't hurt you did she?"

"Aside from knocking all the breath out of me? No, I'm fine."

"Good." The voice was another new one, almost monotone with just the barest hint of any emotion. Twilight looked to see the speaker, another reaper, pinning Candy to the ground in the same way that she had pinned Twilight.

"Oh come on Tide! It was only a bit of harmless fun! I was going to save one for you!"

"Not the issue. We had orders." The stallion let her go. "Back to base. Now."

"But-"

"Now."

Grumbling, the peach pony took to the sky, revealing a set of skeletal looking wings. It wasn't long before she had vanished from sight. The new reaper turned to Twilight and Pinkamena. "Sorry. Problems?"

"You mean aside from the fact that we nearly got erased and this wall hasn't gone down? No, we're doing super thank you," Pinkamena complained.

The stallion walked towards the wall, and placed a hoof against it. There was a brief flash, and then he turned back to the pair. "Cleared. Malfunction. Get going." Without any further words, he also took the sky, and also quickly vanished.

Twilight reached a hesitant hoof towards the barrier, and found it gone. "What just happened there? Why did that reaper save us?"

"Right now, I'm not about to question it. We're back in this thing! Now come on, we have a mission to complete."

Making up for lost time, the pair galloped out of their enclosure. The park around them was deserted. "So do we have any sort of plan here?" Twilight asked. "Like, how we're going to find anyone else?"

"We don't really have time. It shouldn't be too hard to find somepony, right?"

"Keep in mind that they all have a head start on us. I wouldn't be surprised if most of the other pairs were already battling each other."

"But there has to at least one pair left right? Other than us?"

"I guess we're going to find out." Twilight saw a faint shimmer in the air ahead of them. "Wall ahead, turn left." As they turned, a pond came into view, and on the other side they could just make out two other ponies, both shades of red. "Well there we go then."

Pinkamena nodded. "Let's go get them."

The other pair had noticed them as well, and were following the pond around towards them. Twilight slowed down to conserve her energy, letting the other pair expend energy on their approach. Now that they were closer she could tell that they were both stallions, a vibrant red earth pony and a darker red pegasus.

A few paces away from them, they both stopped. The pegasus spoke up. "What ho fellow equines! My name is Altum Videtur, and my compatriot is Crimson Vest."

"And yes, he does always talk like that," interjected the earth pony. Altum glared at him before continuing.

"Anyway, forgive my inquiry, but perchance have you completed today's mission yet?"

"Nope, and I guess you haven't either," Pinkamena responded. "So then, sorry for this, but we have to erase you now."

"No hard feelings! I was about to say the same to you."

Instead of the usual slow fade to the battlefield that normally preceded battles, this time there was a momentary blinding flash. When Twilight vision returned, she found herself standing opposite Altum Videtur. A quick glance to her right confirmed that Pinkamena was facing off against Crimson Vest. She turned her attention back to Altum, who was hovering just above the ground, but otherwise doing nothing.

"I believe the tradition is fillies first, is it not?" he asked. Twilight responded with a barrage of energy shots, which the pegasus managed to dodge most of. Undeterred, Twilight quickly scanned the arena, noticing several pieces of debris scattered around the area. She levitated a tree branch from the ground, and swiped it above the pegasus, hoping to force him lower. She managed to hit him with it, knocking him to the ground. Wasting no time, she dropped the branch and swapped to pyrokinesis, bathing him in fire. Hidden behind the fire, Altum had managed to regain his footing, and took to the air, fast enough to extinguish the flames.

"I see I shouldn't have given you the first go. Time for my chance." Without any further warning he plummeted directly down, almost too fast for Twilight to follow. He slammed the ground with her forehooves, creating a shockwave powerful enough to shake the ground and knock Twilight off her feet. As she started to get back up, the area just beside her exploded in a pillar of fire. She quickly scrambled away, almost backing into another flame pillar behind her. "Hmm, looks like I still need to work on my aim a bit," she heard Altum mutter. "Confounded new pins. Ah well, third time the charm right? Goodbye miss."

Twilight reflexively shut her eyes as the ground around her exploded into flames. When the inital blast proved to be less scorching than she thought it would be, she opened her eyes again. Instead of fire, she was surprised to find an orb of water surrounding her like a barrier. I must have subconsciously activated my new pin she realised. Beyond it she could see the fire had died down. She smiled. "I'm afraid this isn't going to be as easy as you thought it would be."

§§§

Pinkamena jumped to the side, not quite managing to avoid the barrage of magic from her opponent. Before she could counterattack, another swarm of projectiles came her way. Once again, she failed to dodge in time, taking the brunt of the assault. "Ugh, why am I moving so slow! Did somepony put chewing gum on my hoofs again?"

Her opponent let out a chuckle. "That would be one of my pins. Slows everything I battle right down. Handy to deal with speedy things like you!" he began charging at her, readying another attack. Again, Pinkamena was too slow to dodge, but this time she was hit with a ball of electricity, knocking her backwards. The ball orbited around Crimson Vest, preventing her approach. Well it's a good thing I got that Telekinesis pin yesterday. She levitated a nearby park bench and swung it at the other earth pony, scoring a hit. He flew backwards, hitting the barrier surrounding the battlefield.

"Home run!" Pinkamena cheered. Her opponent shook himself off, and fired more shots of energy at her. Rather than try to dodge the normal way, she focused on an area a short distance away from her. She felt her new pin activate, and she suddenly found herself in the spot she had just focused on, looking at a very confused earth pony. "Over here!" Crimson found his target again, and attacked with his energy shots again. Pinkamena teleported again, this time directly behind him. "What a shame, your lightning orb thingy has gone out," she commented, and attack him in a rapid flurry of hooves, faster than the eye could follow. He was knocked back and off his feet. Pinkamena didn't intend to let him get up again. Using her other attack pin, she teleported above him, and came slamming down on his midsection. She heard a sickening crack, and knew it was over. Crimson Vest was beginning to fade out of existence.

Her foe dealt with, Pinkamena glanced over at Twilight's side of the field. Her enemy was also fading, although Twilight was kneeling next to him. Saying sorry I suppose. She went over to Crimson Vest and stood over him. Before she had a chance to say anything, he vanished completely. There was another bright flash, and Twilight and her were all alone, standing beside the pond. A tingle in her front hoof confirmed they had cleared the mission. I can only hope the others are okay...

Comments

[Thespurgin]

And thus a line is crossed, and the reaper's master must pay.

No one, not even the GM, is above the rules of the game. Something THIS GM is about to learn the hard way.

[Archmagejay]

WHY DO YOU DO THIS TO ME...
why did they have to die...

Also great chapter exept for the killing of sentient ponies...
Can't wait for the next chapter

[Spectrum]

Sadly, there was nothing on the others battle im gonna cry from the suspense until the next update.

[Talow]

Somepony has best find a loophole for AJ, RD, Fluttershy, and Rarity, or so help me THERE WILL BE BUCKING HELL TO PAY.

[insightguy]

I bet the mission had a catch to it no one noticed.

[DovahKaaz]

What the? No update! Oh come on! I finally read this and am presented by the cliffhanger of the year! You and BlueAzura can go have a cliffhanger party. *goes to a corner and pouts*

[Paper Crease]

Sooo...
Any chance I could, I dunno, teach you some origami, perhaps?
I mean, I don't think you're really writing anything right now; your other story is complete and this one is on hia-
Wait wat
Well, I guess it's not on hiatus...

Sorry for being so rude, but I'm bored and about three feet from falling asleep too early to go on a trip with family.

[the other sans]

and fired more shot of energy at her

1. Shots.