Death Be Not Proud

by ShinigamiDad

The Fluids of Life

Twilight stared at the mirror’s frame, glancing occasionally at the thick tome she had brought along, comparing glyphs in stone to notes on parchment.

“This book comes so close to revealing some of this!” she said, furiously flipping between two pages.

Luna paced nearby, deep in thought, eyes closed.

“Are we sure the doctor didn’t take any of his blood?” Twilight asked.

“I do not believe so,” Luna replied. “He was hesitant to let her do anything more than poke and prod a bit, and check for breaks and sprains.”

Twilight glared at the tuft of Reaper’s hair still caught in the mirror’s cracked stone surround, then at the book before her.

“Why couldn’t he have cut himself a little instead?” she growled, stabbing the page with a hoof. “Just a bit of his--what did Grey Thorn call it?--“life’s prime fluid” would be enough!”

Twilight let out an exaggerated sigh, stood up, and walked behind the mirror.

Luna stopped pacing and slowly opened her eyes: “What did you say, Twilight? Something about fluids?”

“Yeah,” Twilight replied, “he makes occasional reference to “life’s fluids” and their various dark properties. Obviously blood was on top of that list.”

“The blood! The seed! The tears! The fluids of life!” Luna muttered as she tapped her lower lip with a hoof.

Twilight poked her head around from behind the mirror: “I’m sorry--what was that, Luna?”

“I have heard that term recently,” Luna answered, “and I believe I may have a lead. I must go for a bit, but I will return shortly.”

Twilight stepped back behind the mirror and craned her neck to get a better look at the top of the frame: “Hey, if you think you have anything that can help, take all the time you need! I’m not going anywhere!”

Luna nodded, then trotted briskly through the chamber’s opening, avoiding the use of teleport until she reached the bottom of the scaffold at the catacomb’s exit.

---

Luna appeared with a flash on the outskirts of Ponyville a minute later, then in front of Aloe and Lotus Blossom’s spa.

She opened the door, stepped in, and called out, “Aloe? Lotus? Are you available to speak for a moment?”

Lotus Blossom’s sky-blue head appeared from around a corner: “Princess Luna! What a pleasure to see you again so soon! How can we be of service?”

Luna walked to the spa pony, and guided her back to the private room she typically used. They entered the room, and Luna shut the door behind them.

“My friend and I visited you, mid-day, three days ago, yes?” she asked.

Lotus furrowed her brow in thought for a moment: “That seems right--why?”

“I believe my friend may have left something behind--something potentially valuable.”

Lotus nodded: “Sure! Well, we have a lost-and-found that I can check…”

Luna shook her head: “No, it will not be there. I assume it would be, um, entangled in the towel he used at the end of our session.”

Lotus looked puzzled: “His towel?”

“Yes. I realize this is a long-shot. Have you already sent your linens out to be laundered?”

“Normally they’d have been picked up yesterday afternoon, but our laundry mare’s sick. I was just about to do a load of towels by hoof to tide us over ‘til tomorrow.”

Luna perked up her ears: “So the linens from the day before yesterday are still unlaundered?”

“Right. Let me have Aloe bring the bags in here.”

Lotus stepped to the door, opened it and leaned into the hallway: “Hey, Aloe--please bring the linen bags in here. Princess Luna needs to look for something!”

Aloe’s voice came down the hall, muffled by distance: “I’m already taking care of it! We really need some towels!”

Luna’s eyes widened in alarm, and she teleported to the small utility room where Aloe was filling a sink with soapy water and used towels.

“Stop, please!” Luna pleaded. “I need to examine the towel used by my friend the other day, before you immerse it in water--if it is not already too late!”

Aloe stepped away from the sink in surprise, as her sister entered the room, and pulled one of the laundry bags open, spilling its contents on the floor.

“Do you happen to remember the color of the towel, Princess?” Lotus asked.

“Why?” Luna queried.

Aloe held up one of the wet towels from the sink: “We separate them by color before washing. These white towels get the warmest water, for instance.”

Luna nodded: “I see. Let me attempt to recall what towel he had.”

She closed her eyes for a minute as the scene of Reaper’s sudden, unbidden climax played out in her mind.

“I believe it was blue. A dark blue.”

Lotus glanced at the pile of towels she had already dumped out and shook her head: “Not this bag--probably the first bag in line. We had just received fresh laundry that morning, so his towel would likely be among the oldest used.”

Aloe stepped to the corner and pulled out a bag, emptying it onto an adjacent counter. It contained a mix of mostly blue and mint-green towels, a few robes and a set of sheets.

Luna used her magic to rapidly sort through the pile while the spa ponies swept the unwanted linens and towels aside.

Aloe cocked her head to one side as Luna began sifting through the remaining blue towels one at a time.

“You said he had “entangled” something,” Lotus remarked. “Was it a chain or piece of jewelry? I don’t recall seeing anything like that on him.”

“No, nothing like that,” Luna answered, leaning forward to closely examine each towel, holding them up and sniffing at them.

The sisters looked at each other in confusion as Luna continued her odd search through the mass of slightly-damp towels.

Suddenly her nostrils flared and her eyes went wide: “This must be it!”

Aloe leaned in before Luna could pull the towel away, and sniffed curiously at the light-colored stain streaking its surface. Her eyebrows jumped, and she turned to Luna with a puzzled expression.

“Why do you want this, um, material, if I might ask?”

“I do not have time to explain,” she replied, turning to leave the room, “but this may be the only thing we have that can rescue him from certain exile.”

Lotus looked more confused than ever, but nodded graciously: “Take anything you need, Princess! We are at your service!”

Luna looked over her shoulder with a smile as she stepped into the hallway, prepared to teleport: “I appreciate that! Thank you for your assistance, and send my get well wishes to your laundry mare!”

She disappeared with a ‘pop’ and blue flash a moment later.

---

Luna re-entered the dimly-lit alcove, and found Twilight poring over Glyphs of Warding, vol. II while glancing up at the mirror and furiously scribbling in a small, red notebook.

“Why couldn’t I have accidentally hauled that reference on Shoiman’s Glyphs along when I hid in here?” Twilight mused angrily. “Would have been a lot more useful that that stupid book on phantasmagoria!”

“There is no way you could have known, Twilight,” Luna replied, stepping beside her, towel in-tow.

“I know,” Twilight said, dejectedly, looking up at her elegant indigo companion, “I just wish we had more to go on!”

Luna smiled and brought the blue towel around in front of her as Twilight stood: “I believe I may be able to help with that!”

Twilight looked at the towel with furrowed brow: “A towel? I don’t understand.”

Luna nodded: “Your use of the expression “life’s prime fluid” made me realize we might have access to Reaper’s blood after all--in a way.”

“In a way?”

Luna turned back toward the chamber’s exit: “Follow me.”

The two alicorns entered the burned-out library, and approached Grey Thorn’s partially-melted, greenish work bench, in the sunken central area.

Luna spread the wrinkled, stained blue towel out on a relatively flat spot: “This stone, or whatever it is, is remarkable. Even after my sister’s most intense assault, it still remains, largely intact.”

Twilight stepped up next to Luna: “Yeah, I hoped to get a chance to examine it closer sometime--maybe get a sample.”

“Speaking of,” Luna said, “do you have water in your saddle bags?”

“Sure,” Twilight answered, lifting out a stoppered bottle from her bag, setting it on the bench. “What did you mean by ‘sample?’”

Luna removed the stopper and extracted a small sphere of water from the bottle: “You are aware, I assume, that all our fluids are ultimately derived from our blood, yes?”

Twilight nodded as Luna dropped the water on one of the light-colored stains, smeared across the towel’s surface. She used her magic to agitate and lift the cloudy, now-liquid stain free.

Twilight leaned in, peering at the pale, irregular blob hovering above the dark towel: “So what the hay is that?”

“This is Reaper’s semen.”

Twilight’s eyebrows shot up, and she wrinkled her nose: “How in Equestria did you get that?”

“That is a private matter that I am not at liberty to discuss at this time,” Luna answered. “Suffice it to say, we are unlikely to do any better than this for the foreseeable future.”

Twilight raised an eyebrow: “Alright, but what do we do with it now? Can we just treat it like his blood and see if the glyphs respond?”

“Have you made an attempt to activate or awaken any of the glyphs with your own blood?” Luna asked.

Twilight frowned thoughtfully: “No. I wonder what would happen?”

“As do I,” Luna replied. “I also wonder what effect my blood might have.”

“Your blood? But you’re not a virgin!”

Luna rolled her eyes: “Hardly. But I suspect that’s not really the point this time. You and I are not the same ponies we were a few weeks ago. I know you feel the changes even more keenly than I.”

Twilight nodded slowly: “You think Reaper is in our blood, in a way?”

“His power is, at any rate. Let us see if we cannot concoct a suitable substitute for his blood using our own and the only thing we have left of him.”

Twilight sighed: “Great. Time to open another vein!”

Luna smiled: “I agree--it is unpleasant, but necessary. I shall go first. Please hold this.”

She hovered the glistening drop toward Twilight, who took it gingerly with her own magic, enabling Luna to lance her inner wrist with a thin magic blade, spilling a small pool of blood on the bench’s speckled, gray-green surface.

Twilight passed Reaper’s semen back to Luna, then lifted a quill and ink from her bag. She jotted a black ‘L’ above the puddle of Luna’s blood.

“My turn,” she said, wincing as she cut through her hide, dripping blood on the workbench next to the ‘T’ she had penned. She scrawled an ‘R’ next to that.

Luna placed the pale, sticky globule down below the ‘R’, and sucked lightly at her cut until it stopped bleeding.

Twilight set her quill and ink bottle down toward the end of the bench, alongside her red notebook: “Now what?”

Luna closed her eyes and chewed her lower lip for a moment: “Well, how many possible combinations are there of our three fluids?”

Twilight pondered for moment, then scribbled down several lines in her notebook: “There’s each one separately, yours and mine mixed, his and yours mixed, mine and his mixed, and all three mixed--so, seven.”

Luna nodded: “Clearly we have more than enough blood, and Reaper did deposit rather a lot of himself in this towel, so I hope we have enough to work with.”

“I have no idea,” Twilight said, shrugging. “I know it only took a little bit to activate to other glyphs I’ve encountered. I hope this mirror works the same way.”

Luna took a deep breath: “Only one way to find out.”

She leaned forward and dipped the tip of her horn in her blood. Twilight stained the tip of her horn with her own blood, as well, slung a saddlebag across her hip, and joined Luna in the mirror alcove.

“I guess it doesn’t really matter who starts,” Twilight remarked. “Why don’t you go first while I take notes?”

Luna nodded and stepped forward, tracing each glyph with her blood, clockwise from the top of the frame. Three glyphs glowed a faint blue for a minute after the application.

Twilight stepped forward and peered intently at the glyphs: “I guess I never really noticed, but it’s almost like the stone absorbs the blood on some of these artifacts. Weird.”

“Fortuitous in this case,” Luna remarked, taking up the quill and notebook, “as it allows us to start each test fresh.”

“True,” Twilight said as she repeated Luna’s top-down, clockwise pattern. Both alicorns noted that six symbols glowed a pale magenta in the presence of Twilight’s blood.

Luna returned the book and quill to Twilight and turned toward the exit: “I will retrieve a sample of Reaper’s contribution.”

She returned a few moments later with a small, shiny teardrop shape hovering in front of her: “Please take this from me and apply it to my horn.”

Twilight set her writing materials down and applied the drop to the tip of Luna’s horn.

Luna stepped forward and repeated the application pattern again, remarking, “His semen is somewhat more difficult to administer. It clearly does not flow like blood.”

Twilight shrugged as she watched for any reaction from the glyphs: “I’ll take your word for it!”

Luna withdrew from the mirror: “It appears that only this one small symbol at the bottom was affected.”

Twilight jotted down the shape and location of the activated glyph, then turned to Luna: “So it’s combo time, I guess.”

Luna stared distractedly at her cracked, dust-blurred reflection for a moment before replying, “Yes. Please mix a bit of our blood together and bring it back.”

Twilight returned a minute later: “I felt a surge of something when I touched your blood with my horn. Did you feel a surge when you touched, er, Reaper’s…”

“The word you seek, Twilight, is “semen;” you needn’t be so squeamish. And, no--I detected no power or presence or anything.”

Twilight furrowed her brow and worked her way through the glyphs, progressing as before, until each one glistened with a faint line of alicorn blood.

This time a new arrangement of glyphs glowed, sparkling a vibrant green. The effect lasted more than a minute longer than previous applications.

Twilight stepped back and looked over Luna’s shoulder as she recorded the locations and effects of their co-mingled blood.

“That was most interesting. I hope you’re able to make sense of the emerging pattern, Twilight,” Luna remarked as she set down the notebook and quill. “I shall prepare the next combination.”

Twilight took up her writing materials as Luna left the alcove. She could still feel a slight tingling sensation from having touched Luna’s blood, and she was making notes on the effect when Luna returned.

She stepped immediately to the mirror and began applying the cloudy, pinkish fluid at the tip of her horn to its symbols and glyphs.

Twilight began scribbling furiously as a whole new collection of glyphs glowed a deep purplish-blue. She felt the tingle in her horn again.

“Was that your blood?” she asked Luna.

“Yes,” Luna replied, backing away slowly from the mirror, shuddering slightly as the glyphs and symbols faded. “Your turn.”

Twilight sighed and let Luna take the notebook and quill from her as she turned toward the chamber’s exit.

Twilight approached the workbench, set her jaw and tipped her head down in order to magically pull a bead of fluid from the spots marked ‘T’ and ‘R’. She focused on mixing them together, then on levitating the resulting mixture to the tip of her horn.

She felt a sudden wave of cold rush through her veins as the drop ran down the end of her horn, causing it to glow a pale gold. She blinked heavily and shook her head, then stumbled uncertainly through the entry back to Luna in the alcove.

“I feel woozy,” she remarked as she almost bumped into the mirror.

“We are nearly done, here, Twilight--just two more tests!”

Twilight nodded, took a deep breath and worked her way through the progression of symbols once more. This time the various glyphs glowed a deep orange.

“Remarkable!” Luna said as she scratched away with the quill. “The set of symbols and their order were very similar to the last iteration.”

Twilight sat down heavily and struggled against a wave of intense fatigue: “Can we take a break for a minute? This kind of magic is wearing me out!”

Luna nodded: “You rest for a moment--I will prepare the final test application.” She left Twilight alone in the alcove and returned to the library.

Luna returned two minutes later, levitating another pinkish globule in front of her: “I made sure to roll up the towel lest it dry out completely. I have no idea if we will need more of Reaper’s contribution or not.”

Twilight stood unsteadily, and brought her notebook and quill up before her, ready to record this final test: “Alright--let’s do this!”

Luna nodded, rolled her eyes up until they nearly crossed, and focused on bringing the mixture of all three ponies down over the tip of her horn.

As she did, Twilight suddenly jerked and twitched, and her horn began to glow: “Wha-what’s happening?”

“I do not know, but I assume it is important. Please focus as I work my way through the glyphs!”

Luna stepped to the mirror and began to apply her mixture to the symbols. As she progressed through the glyphs, her vision began to swim. She could hear Twilight breathing heavily behind her.

Luna squeezed her eyes shut for a moment to stave off the rising vertigo, and when she reopened them she could see clusters of glyphs glowing a brilliant gold. On a hunch she skipped the bottom symbol, and finished the rest of the mirror frame, activating even more symbols.

Twilight was fighting for breath by now, but kept jotting down notes in a desperate attempt to capture everything possible before she fainted. Her ears were ringing when she noticed Luna had avoided the bottom glyph.

“Wh-why did you skip the bottom glyph, Luna?

Luna turned to her, eyes blazing: “Touch my horn, Twilight. There is a trace left. You must make the final gesture.”

Twilight tipped forward, nearly toppling, and scraped her horn against Luna’s. The electric shock and tingle she had experienced earlier returned with almost overwhelming force.

“Why me?” she asked as she fell to her knees before the mirror.

“I--I believe that symbol is reserved for the Harbinger. You are the Harbinger! Do it now!”

Twilight pressed her face forward and slid the tip of her horn along the grooves of the lowest, smallest glyph, then she allowed herself to slip into unconsciousness, with Luna’s voice echoing distantly in her ears, like a dream.

“Blessed Night, Twilight--that’s it! The mirror has cleared! I can see the Nexus!”