The Truth about Reapers

by MineLittleDashie

A Secret Accord

'Nightmare, huh? Well it explains the decor on her side of the board.'

'Wait...'

"Nightmare Moon..... Nightmare.........hmmm....." I focused my attention back onto the evil alicorn. "You wouldn't happen to be responsible, either directly or indirectly, for the huge increase in monsters in Equestria, would you?"

The alicorn smirked. "I might have persuaded quite a few to aid me in my plan for eternal night, yes."

"Gods, so you're the reason I'm here. Thank you, very much, for making my job a lot harder than I'd like it to be."

Both alicorns looked at me in surprise.

"What is this 'job' you speak of?" Luna asked, cocking her head slightly.

"Have you already forgotten, you fool." Nightmare scoffed. "Reapers are responsible for taking the souls of the dead and dyi-"

"NOPE!" I shouted, my voice echoing around the room. "I'm going to stop you right there, and correct this situation before it turns back into what happened several millennia ago."

I focused my attention on Luna. "Reapers do not, i repeat, do not reap the souls of anyone or anypony. We are monster hunters, tasked with protecting the average citizens from the denizens of the dark. And that...." I turned slightly and dramatically pointed at Nightmare Moon. "Includes ones such as you."

Nightmare's look of surprise at my outburst morphed into a scowl of anger. "So you mean to kill my creatures of the night and bring an end to me?"

"Only those that have harmed ponies, and I guess whatever other civilized creatures roam this world."

"A pity, we could have done much together. Be thankful that I am preoccupied and not able to destroy you here and now."

"Speaking of that..." I sauntered closer to the side of the chessboard nearest to me and looked over the pieces. "What's going on here? Is it normal for good and evil to get together for chess club?"

"Do not make light of this game, reaper," Luna replied. "It represents our battle for full control of our body and will."

My face scrunched up in an expression of thoughtful confusion. "So... whoever wins controls the body. What happens to the loser?"

"The loser is stripped of their magic for a time, as according to our agreement. Once that magic is restored, the next match will take place."

"Hm." I stepped forward and looked over the chessboard for a few seconds before glancing quickly at each participant. 'Well, you know what they say. Rather the devil you've read about from the archives...'

"Knight to E5, Luna."

"What?"

"Knight to E5, you heard me."

"YOU CAN'T DO THAT!" Nightmare Moon shouted, clearly outraged.

I gave a sidelong glance at the black alicorn. "Do the rules distinctly say that I can't?"

She grumbled a response and moved one of her bishops.

The game proceeded on like so, with me giving Luna moves while Nightmare struggled to counter us. Her efforts were in vain, however, and she was eventually backed into a corner.

"And.... Queen to D6. Checkmate." I said as Luna moved the final piece.

The result was instantaneous. A pillar of blue light emerged from directly under Nightmare Moon, engulfing her for approximately 10 seconds before disappearing, taking the black alicorn with it. A final, echoing "NOOOOO!" was the last trace of her existence.

I continued to stare at the black stool where our antagonist had been seated, until a polite cough drew my attention to the moon princess.

"We thank you for thy help, but we still wonder why thou chose to aid us, after our trying to apprehend thee?"

"Were you not listening earlier? Reapers are monster hunters, and because Nightmare Moon is responsible, if only partially, for the increase in the local monster population, then she is also my enemy."

"We... remember fighting your kind long ago, but we thought they were all gone. How is it that you are here?"

"Ah, as much as I'd like to put your mind as ease, telling you that would open up a whole 'nother barrel of monkeys."

"What have monkeys to do with this, and why are they in a barrel?"

"It's an expression from where I'm from. It usually means something that's a lot of fun, but I'm using it in more of a sarcastic sense."

"Oh." Luna's response sounded as if she understood, but her expression stated otherwise.

"You know what, don't worry about it," I said. "By the way, Luna, why were you having such trouble with her. I'm assuming that you've won all your other matches."

"Yes, we have," Luna replied quietly. "But we forgot how tiring our duties as princess can be. That, and Nightmare has been learning our strategies, so I cannot defeat her the same way twice."

"That definitely sounds like a problem, but there's a simple fix. Call me in whenever you're about to have a match and I'll aid you."

Luna stared at me. "Thou would do such a thing? Why?"

"Death almighty, girl! Do I need to spell it out for you? We have a common enemy, so why not help each other out?!"

Luna appeared taken aback by my outburst, but not so much that she missed the last part of my exclamation.

"Yes, you'll be helping us, but how do we help you?" She asked, eyes narrowed.

"Nothing much just a couple small things."

"Such as?"

I held up my fingers. "First, don't tell Celestia about me just yet. I know it sounds suspicious, but somehow I doubt she'd be as open-minded and understanding as you. Besides, we don't have a common enemy to join against."

"Normally a request like that would be ignored, but seeing as how thou has helped us tremendously, we will comply. Though if thou does anything that breaks our trust..." Luna left the potential threat hanging.

"Understood. The second thing, I want you to keep an ear out for, and inform me of any incidents that could be the result of a monster."

"How would we be able to identify such an event?"

"Oh, it's easy. Mass disappearances, ponies seeing or hearing things that shouldn't be there, livestock being slaughtered during the night, anything out of the ordinary."

"We assume this has to do with your job?" Luna asked.

I nodded.

"Very well, we shall do this. Is there a way thou would like to receive this information? After all, our sister might become suspicious of something, should we use the normal mail system."

"That might be a problem. Give me a couple days, I'll have something."

"Very well, um, we appear to be at a disadvantage, not knowing thy name."

"You may call me George, or Mr.Douglas in a formal setting."

"We see." A thought seemed to strike her. "Are we the only one who though are known to?"

"No, I am known by the Elements of Harmony, and have been seen by a good number of Ponyville's residents. What's wrong?"

Luna appeared unsettled. "Thou knows Twilight Sparkle?"

"Yes?" Was knowing the purple alicorn a bad thing?

"Were thou aware that she was our sister's pupil at one time, and sends friendship reports to her occasionally?"

My mouth opened and closed several times, probably giving me the appearance of a fish. "That..... has potential to be a very big problem."

Suddenly, the entire room began to shake.

"We are being wakened," Luna said, staring at the ceiling. "Thou will most likely be returned to your body and awaken as well."

"Most likely?"

But Luna and everything else was already beginning to fade. The lunar princess gave me one last look.

"We will do as thou have requested. We wish thee luck in thy fight against the Nightmare and her creatures of the night."

And with that, everything went black.

Author's Note:

Hey everyone, new chapter of TaR is up and I hope you like it. Like and favorite for more.

Comments

[Rhulain]

Oh hey you're alive.

*stops looting*

Nice to see you!

[Crescent Glaive]

Chess game of balance, huh?

Intriguing....

[Starl]

7726833
Kind of reminds me of that scene from No Game No Life with the Othello game.