Do Not Go Gentle

by ShinigamiDad

Haymaker

Luna was already facing the banner, generating flickering images as Reaper appeared, facing away, looking down the long, dark vaulted hall, focusing on the trailing ivy and broken masonry littering the floor.

“Reaper!” Luna called, her voice echoing in the emptiness. “I have recalled earlier dreams of Snow Sprite. I am convinced Mister Haymaker is our quarry.”

Reaper turned back and walked to Luna’s side: “Show me.”

The flashing pictures stopped, focusing on a small town street at dusk. A pale yellow earth pony stallion walked into view. Reaper nodded.

“After you, your Highness,” Reaper said, sweeping low in a bow, raising a hoof toward the banner.

Luna rolled her eyes, and floated up and through the banner. Reaper followed a moment later.

They appeared in the street behind Haymaker’s shade, and followed him as he walked toward a blank, windowless, brick-faced building. A second pony joined him.

“Haymaker,” said the older dark-gray mare, pointing toward the dark, featureless facade “the new school won’t be approved by the town council if we can’t find more funds.” Haymaker walked up the steps of the building and touched the facade; a black door appeared.

Luna concentrated for a moment and the world blurred by, as it had when they had visited Firebrand’s dream. Reaper was ready this time, and oriented himself quickly when the new scene snapped into focus.

They were on the same street, years later, viewing the aftermath of some great storm which had passed just minutes before. The area was strewn with fallen lampposts and pieces of roofing, shutters and branches, and blocks of shattered masonry. The sky was still low and turbulent, threatening further rain. Ponies were calling out in pain and fear.

“Did we miss something? Are we too late?” queried Reaper, looking around for further violence.

“No. This is a true-source vision of Haymaker’s which would be played out several times over the coming years.” Luna replied.

Reaper furrowed his brow and nodded. “That’s right--I remember this storm. Killed two ponies over behind the school. Collapsed wall.”

“Yes,” Luna concurred. “That, too, plays out in dreams to come.”

The scene blurred as the years rushed by, light and dark, indistinct shapes and sounds blending together. The shifting vision stopped abruptly.

Reaper braced as howling winds suddenly ripped at his cloak, and threatened to topple him.

“Crap! What an entrance!” he shouted over the din.

“Look to your left,” cried Luna, pointing at the back wall of the school, sheltering three foals and Haymaker from the lashing rain and wind.

Reaper squinted: “that must be Snow Sprite!” he yelled, pointing to a small, ivory-white unicorn, huddled against Haymaker.

Luna nodded numbly and dropped her head as a sudden gust of wind tore away part of the wall, and sent a crack running down its full length.

Reaper dug in his hooves as he felt the air pressure lessen, and heard the whistle of the wind shift to a locomotive-like roar. He peered about, trying to catch any detail that might be obscured by the maelstrom.

He only caught a glimpse of the moon, high above the wrack, at the last moment, before the whole scene was nearly blotted out by the touchdown of an unimaginably huge funnel cloud, not a hundred yards away.

The foals screamed, and Haymaker flattened his body over theirs in an attempt to pin them to the ground. But the ground itself started to tear away before he could settle in, lifting up in huge chunks.

One of the foals was yanked free from Haymaker’s grasp and pulled wailing into the swirling void. A second was ripped to shreds by shards of flying glass, spattering Haymaker and Snow Sprite with blood.

Snow Sprite cried out in terror and clung to Haymaker’s neck in desperation: “Don’t let me go! Save me Mr. Haymaker! Save--”

A large, jagged fragment of masonry tore free from the wall above and smashed between Haymaker and Snow Sprite, shattering the filly’s skull, and sending her ruined body spinning off into the utterly black funnel, now directly above the disintegrating wall.

Haymaker screamed in horror: “Please let me save them!!”

Luna sat motionless in the background, sobbing quietly, as Nightmare Moon’s harsh voice cut through the tumult: “Them? Not this time! You cannot even save yourself!”

Reaper sensed that the ultimate moment had arrived, and tried to dash forward into the heart of the scene, but the inescapable blackness of the tornado sucked away all light and air and earth, as what remained of the wall slammed downward onto the old stallion’s upturned, tear-streaked face.

“Strike two…” Reaper muttered from the tangle of his own cloak, as the gruesome vision faded out.