Death Be Not Proud

by ShinigamiDad

Homing Beacon

Twilight walked alone through the decayed ruins of Ponyville, her grey-streaked mane and tattered cloak tossed by a bitter, swirling winter wind. She approached the broken wreck of a castle, and observed five overgrown statues, crumbling near the entrance.

She pushed her way in through the broken door, and walked down the empty corridor to a throne room, dominated by a cracked and darkened map table. A figure sat in the lone, un-rotted chair.

“Who are you?” she asked the cloaked stranger. He seemed familiar, though he was clearly no pony. He looked more like the beings she had encountered many centuries before, in what must have been another world.

The stranger stood: “It’s common courtesy for the guest to introduce themselves first, is it not?”

“Guest? Do you live here?”

“I moved in centuries ago, when the last denizen of this town died off.”

Twilight furrowed her brow and stared at the floor, lost in thought: “I remember that. I think she was the great-great-great-something-granddaughter of some… somepony I can’t recall.”

She looked up at the stranger: “My name is Twilight Sparkle, Death’s Harbinger. Who are you?”

“I go by Reaper, though my true name was lost long ago.”

Twilight chuckled: “Funny--your name sounds more like more Death’s Harbinger than mine!”

“True, though you do seem to have the right tool and cutie mark for the job.”

Twilight glanced back at the matching 死 marks on her flanks, and the battered sword on her right hip: “I guess I’ve always had these.”

“So what brings you to my run-down domicile, Twilight? Is it my time to go?”

“I don’t know. You don’t really seem to belong here.”

“True. I do kind of stand out, don’t I?”

“I’ve only ever seen ponies in this world. Are you from another world?”

“Possibly, though not the one you’re thinking of.”

Reaper walked around the table and approached Twilight, looking intently at her horn.

“Hmm. Looks like you have something on your horn, Twilight.”

She furrowed her brow and crossed her eyes in an attempt to focus on the tip of her horn.

Reaper reached out and ran his finger along the spiral ridges of the alicorn’s horn, coming away with a sticky, pearlescent film.
“I think this belongs to me.”

He turned away from Twilight and spoke into the shadows at the far end of the chamber: “And you have something that belongs to me, too, Your Highness!”

Luna suddenly emerged from beneath a sagging archway, and approached Twilight and Reaper. He stepped forward to meet her.
“So nice of you to visit Equestria again! How long has it been, Princess?”

Luna furrowed her brow and turned toward Twilight: “Twilight--You have fainted and entered a dream state! You must awaken!”

Reaper reached out and ran his finger along Luna’s horn, again coming away with another smear of translucent fluid.

Twilight tipped her head sideways and regarded Luna with a puzzled expression: “I thought you were gone. Why have you come back?”

“I have come to take you from this dream so that we may figure out how the mirror works! We must retrieve Reaper, lest this vision become reality!”

Twilight sat down against the edge of the table, knocking a piece loose: “Who will I have to reap first, Luna? You remember, don’t you? Is it Rarity? She won’t go easily.”

Reaper sat next to her and rubbed his fingertips against his forehead: “Nope--have to use the blade on that one--she’s a fighter!”

Luna frowned and swept a beam of bluish-white magic around the hall: “Why can I not break this dream?”

“Because your power is rooted in Equestria, and this dream has leaked beyond the bounds of your domain,” Reaper answered as he pinched at his forehead and pulled a horn out until it extended roughly 9 inches.

Twilight suddenly flopped backwards, and spread across the map table, breaking off another fragment: “Yeah, Rarity was tough. I cried. Scootaloo’s granddaughter was easy though--the fever took her. She was so small. That’s the last of the old days I can recall. I just stopped caring after that…”

Luna’s nostrils flared as she looked angrily at Reaper: “Explain! Are you really here and connected to us in some form, or are you merely a manifestation of Twilight’s subconscious?”

He shrugged as he rubbed his hands together, giving them a vigorous shake until they changed to hooves: “Hey, you’re supposed to be the Mistress of Dreams, yes? How’d you get out of the last one?”

Twilight rolled on her side, tears spilling down her cheeks: “Luna please help! I don’t want this job anymore! I’ve done it for so very long. I don’t even think there’s anypony left anymore!”

“Maybe Luna can take over now, and reap you!” Reaper offered, reaching for the sword. “She’s just visiting, anyway.”

Luna’s eyebrows shot up: “No, not her--you’re the link!” She reached out with her magic and wrested the sword away from Reaper, who was now half horse, again.

He spun angrily: “Hey! That’s my blade now! Twilight didn’t want it anymore!” He lunged toward Luna.

She stepped forward quickly and plunged the blade into Reaper’s chest, driving him down, pinning him to the floor.

“This seems familiar…” he gasped, as the castle began to collapse, and the scene dissolved in a cloud of dust and debris.

---

Twilight set up and rubbed her eyes, fighting to focus on Luna’s face, hovering above her: “Wha-what happened?”

“I’m not entirely sure. At first I thought you were merely in a deep dream state, and Reaper was part of that dream. But now I believe he was actually sharing the dream from beyond the mirror.”

They glanced at the mirror. Twilight gasped: “The glyphs! The ones that match the symbols we saw in the sand are glowing gold!”

Luna nodded, and retrieved Twilight’s notebook and quill: “Yes--there are a few others engaged as well, it appears, but you are correct: all the glyphs from Reaper’s dream are glowing.”

She stepped forward and tentatively probed the mirror’s surface with a hoof. It gave way with a ripple, as though she was stepping into a vertical pool of water.

Twilight stood quickly and moved to pull Luna back: “No! You can’t go through yet--you’ll end up stuck on the other side with Reaper! We have to figure out how to get back before we can retrieve him!”

Luna sighed and chewed her lip: “Yes, you are right. It would be foolish to proceed with this riddle only half-solved.”

Twilight sat down again and rubbed her temples: “What did Reaper mean by “this dream has leaked?” Is he dreaming beyond the mirror?”

Luna nodded: “That is how I interpret his words. Somehow dreams can transcend this world, at least in the presence of this mirror. I’ve never shared a dream from beyond Equestria--at least none of which I’m aware!”

“Well, it would appear you did so this time, Princess!” Reaper said as he stepped unsteadily through the mirror, and sat down next to a startled Twilight.

Luna’s eyebrows shot up: “How did you find your way back?”

“After I woke from our dream--thanks for another sword through my chest, by the way--I saw one of the portal orbs glowing faintly. Then, just moments later, I saw it ripple or distort for an instant.”

“Perfect!” Twilight cried. “Do you think you’d remember which portal it is if you were to go back into the nexus?”

Reaper nodded: “All my millennia of traversing Tartarus and the dreamscape, not to mention my own “waiting room,” have given me a keen sense of direction, and a good eye for landmarks.”

“Did you explore at all while you were there?” Luna asked.

“No, I just sat there for a bit after I got my bearings, and tried to recall my time there with Grey Thorn. I closed my eyes in an effort to bring the memory up, and I clearly dozed off as a result of my fatigue.”

Twilight nodded: “And that’s when you joined us in my dream.”

“Right, though for a bit I couldn’t tell if it was my dream or yours.”

“So now what?” Twilight asked. “Do you or we go through again and see what we can figure out next, or…?”

Luna shook her head: “I think not. You were right to forestall me a moment ago, Twilight. We should return to the castle, rest, gather our thoughts and go over your notes. I feel we got lucky just now, and I would rather not trust to luck again.”

Reaper stood and began walking toward the chamber’s exit: “I agree wholeheartedly. Let’s head back to your quarters and regroup. At a minimum, I could use a drink!”

Twilight stood and followed her companions through the doorway into the ruined library beyond: “I think we all could!”