My Little Pony: The Seal of Death

by Azrael the alicorn

00: Prologue

In the depths of desert landscape stood a large, abandoned castle. It was surrounded by a spell that prevented any passerby to see it, let alone interact with it, and inside this fortress lived an alicorn. An alicorn highly skilled with the forces of magic: Azrael: The Angel of Death.
Azrael lived anonymously, and preferred solitude over contact with beings. His job was to show lost souls the path to the afterlife. That, as well as recording births and deaths in dusty notebooks.
It was anything but light work, which had made the Alicorn do little else other than eat and sleep.
After scoring off another death in his notebook. Azrael slowly walked off to bed, his head drooping as he did so. The alicorn carried much guilt on his back, and regretted many actions of his. He thought about the many things he had done every second of his life, and as much as he tried to hold back the memories, he found himself unable to.
After releasing a submissive sigh, he got down from his bed and made his way out his bedroom. He was exhausted, and that didn’t exactly help him feel any better.
The corridors were dusty and full of cobwebs, let alone dark, but these were not problems for Azrael, as he was used to it. His horn gleamed in the darkness, revealing a hidden door in which the alicorn entered.
Inside the room was a sinister looking object. It was a medallion bearing the image of a skull, looking truly frightening. But the appearance was nothing compared to what was contained inside it. It was known as the Glyph of Death.
Azrael stared at the Glyph, and without warning, materialized a blue tinted magical blade from his horn, he stared at it, longing to break it.
But as was the case every night, the alicorn could not find the strength to do so.

"Because I cannot,” he said to himself. “Because my fears stop me from ridding myself from this burden.”

The alicorn then withdrew his blade, his gaze still fixed on the artifact.

“But what is the fear that stops me? Fear of dying? Or maybe it's the fear of being a disappointment?” Azrael reflected thoughtfully.

His internal war would have continued for much longer, but something stopped him in his tracks. He felt something coming from the hall. It was the sound of creaking hooves, sure to be the sound of a fellow pony....
He came running out, ready to face the intruder, but the pony was fearless out at him, making his jump at least an inch.
Azrael felt his body tremble in incredulity when he realized who he was looking at. He had never met the pony in person, but his appearance was instantly recognizable.
It was none other than King Sombra.

“You seem quite shocked, Azrael. I guess you didn’t expected my arrival” commented the tyrant. Azrael was indeed shocked, but it was more about the fact that somepony he was sure died was now before him, in flesh and bones. It didn’t took long that his shock was replaced by anger.

“Your presence here is not welcomed, you monster” commented the angel of death gritting his teeth.

“Oh Azrael, is this how you address your guest?” replied Sombra, ignoring the glare of Azrael.

“It’s the only way to address a creature like you, who makes thousands of innocents suffer just to fulfill his dream of conquest” replied back Azrael while making reappearing his magical blade, “I don’t know how you managed to come back without me knowing about it, nor how you have entered in my house, but one thing is certain: you will not get out of it alive”.

“Oh, my, and how can a simple powerful unicorn such me face the angel of death alone?” said Sombra, faking to be scared, “Oh, wait, im not alone”.

At those words Azrael felt the presence of many beings surrounding him and soon they came out from the shadow. Changelings. There were so many that Azrael had an hard time counting them; there were at least an hundred of them. At his sign the insect like ponies charged him, submerging the angel of death with their number. For a moment it looked that they had managed to subdue him. But it was only a moment and soon Azrael break up from the pile, making the changelings flies like leaf in the wind. With a swift movement the angel of death covered up the distance between him and the dark tyrant, knocking him down preparing his blade to strike.

“Your new allies won’t stop me to end your series of crimes against the livings, Sombra!” shouted Azrael.

“Oh, but im not actually Sombra” replied the voice, a little shacking. It sounded… feminine? Suddenly the dark tyrant lighten up in a green flame, revealing none other than the queen of the Changelings, Chrysalis! That stopped Azrael’s blade to plunge on the queen neck. Why would the queen of changelings take the appearance of a dead tyrant? Was that to take advantage of his surprise? Or maybe… the angel of death turned as fast as he could, hoping with all himself that his theory was wrong… but he was right. Sombra stood by the door smiling triumphantly… and was already wearing the Seal of Death. Azrael cursed himself for his lack of attention and of how his senses had become slow without the right training.

“I must say I am a bit disappointed by how easy it was to get past your attention” commented the dark tyrant, “But that doesn’t matter. What matter is that the Seal of Death is mine!”.

“Ahem!” coughed Chrysalis getting up.

“Yes, Chrysalis, I know. It was also thanks to you that I’ve managed to get it. Don’t worry, you will have your reward” added Sombra.

Azrael tried to take advantage of the distracted villain by charging it, trying to fix his mistake, but Sombra was not that much unfocused by not noticing that and shot down a powerful ray at him. Azrael raised a magical shield to protect himself but it offered little against the beam. The angel of death was pushed to the ground, his body covered in wounds and pain. He had to focus to not lose conscious, or else it would have been his end.

“Now that’s impressive. One attack and even a powerful alicorn as you is reduced to a scrap. Wonder how much more powerful can I get with this relic” commented Sombra, grinning.

“You…don’t know what are you doing” muttered Azrael, fighting back the pain, “You’re dealing with forces that goes beyond your wildest imagination. You will end up by destroying everything!”

“I will not release Death by accident if that is what you fear. Im just about to taking back what is mine… and even more. So put your fears to rest, because soon enough you will follow them” replied Sombra, preparing to finish him off.

Azrael reflected on what he could do. Fighting Sombra with the Seal was a suicidal task. Even thought that death would have been the right punishment for all his failures. But then the rest of the world would have been caught unprepared for Sombra return for not talking about him having at his disposal the most powerful relic of all? No, he had to warn them. Right before Sombra could finish him Azrael teleported away.

“Oh great he got away. Now is going to warn the Elements of Harmony!” complained Chrysalis. Sombra wasn’t that bothered.

“Being warned or less about my return will not make a difference” he said, “I will enjoy hunting them down…and fear will cripple their souls”.

*

When the light went off Azrael looked around, trying to figure out where he was. He was in a garden and not too far away from his objective. Sadly the teleporting spell had took away the rest of the energy he had and fell unconscious to the ground. Few seconds later a figure approached the knocked down alicorn and, after looking at his ghostly look, lifted him from the ground and carried him away.

*

Azrael woke up. He was inside the infirmary of the castle, and he was not alone. Princess Luna was watching him carefully.

“Thank you for taking care of my wounds" he said, nodding his head in respect, "but shouldn’t I be talking with your sister?” asked Azrael quickly.

“It was a pleasure and a duty to help a fellow alicorn in need,” replied Luna. “And do not worry, my sister will arrive very shortly.”

Luna suddenly looked curious. “You're the pastor of souls, right?.”

Surprise overtook Azrael’s body. “After all these years, someone still remembers who I am?.”

Luna smirked, “Unfortunately for you, your name appears in many myths and legends across Equestria.”

“I don’t know if I should feel honored or sorry that you’ve come into my presence,” Azrael replied with bitter irony,

“Oh no, I’m totally honored, it gave me the sincerity…” Luna suddenly stopped in her tracks, and looked down at the floor, as if afraid of saying something wrong.

Azrael could not ask for explanations for Luna’s recent actions when Celestia entered the room. Azrael jumped out of bed at her arrival, bowing his head low.

“I pay my respects, Princess Celestia,” said Azrael.

“Azrael, your arrival here in our kingdom fills me and my sister with disbelief,” said Celestia, looking shocked and confused. “Do we know why you have returned?”

“Unfortunately, it’s not a holiday trip,” replied Azrael. “We are all in grave danger.”

*

It was another peaceful day in Ponyville. Ponies trotted and chatted with each other, various ponies were selling stuff at stalls, fillies and colts were off to school, and so on. It couldn’t have been a more ordinary weekday.

Outside the town however, the mane 6 were training using rocks, wearing their elements around their necks. As for Twilight, she was wearing her princess crown on top of her head.

“Okay, Applejack, smash the rock with your hind hooves,” instructed Twilight.

Applejack obeyed and pulled her hind legs up, throwing them at a 5 foot boulder. The rock shattered almost instantly.

“Fantastic,” said Rarity, clapping her hooves.

Twilight suddenly eyed all of her friends, and walked in a line in front of them all

“Guys, I want you to listen to a theory I have on the elements.”

“Well what’s that then Twi,” said Applejack, looking up at her friend after having smashed the boulder.

“I believe that the Elements of Harmony enhance ponies special talents,” Twilight said. “I’ve noticed that ever since I bore the Element of Magic, my magic has become stronger, and from what I’ve researched, no normal earth pony could ever smash a rock that big. “I still don’t understand the reason behind this, but……”

Twilight was suddenly distracted by the fact that Spike had just spat a bunch of green flames, quickly forming into the shape of a letter. Twilight pulled the letter closer to her with her magic and began to read.

Dear Princess Twilight Sparkle

I ask you to come to Canterlot as soon as you possibly can. We have had a visit from a being that until now, we believed to be a mere legend. His name is Azrael, and he has come to bring us news of an imminent threat.

Talk to you soon.

Princess Celestia

“Azrael?” Asked Pinkie Pie, confused.

The lilac alicorn nodded her head.

“Yes. When I first became Princess Celestia’s student, she gave me a book about ancient creatures and mythological beings. One of them them was an alicorn from the past, Azrael: The Angel of Death.”

“And what’s so special about this guy?” Asked Rainbow Dash, her usual arrogant self.

“Grrr, Rainbow Dash,” said Twilight, rolling her eyes and clearly annoyed. “Don’t you have any respect for history. For starters, he’s an alicorn, and a natural one, not like me and Cadance. In addition to that, the legends say that he used to guide lost souls to the afterlife so that they could meet up with their former loved ones, and would keep track of all births and deaths in Equestria.”

“Yeah, yeah, whatever,” replied Rainbow Dash, already practically falling asleep.

Twilight rolled her eyes again, and gave Rainbow a quick look, before turning to the others again.

“Guys, we’re going to Canterlot.”

Comments

[PlieRow666]

is that of please of Death from darksiders 2?

[Azrael the alicorn]

Yup. Darksiders is one of my most beloved video games series ever, so I've decided to pay a little homage to it.

[Theponycipher]

Only one thing wrong. Adressing them as the 'mane 6' when they are The Bearers Of Harmony'

[IAmNotSmartest]

Well. Rainbow certainly is fearless, if she doesn't give more than half of a damn about Death himself.

[Una]

Sorry my friend but story is far to rushed, the hero also seems rather less then...his title applies.